Blog

The sun continued to shine for us in July & August and here in  Beechtree we had a busy summer.

With the beautiful long days, we had a few visits from Ray’s ice-cream van, bringing delicious ice cream to everyone.

There were many birthdays to celebrate and we took a few trips to the Oldtown house and O Connors in Ballyboughal for some cool refreshments. A special thanks to Niamh & Maddie for arranging this.

We were delighted to welcome back  Continue Reading →

Why is reminiscence so important?

We often hear about reminiscence therapy in Nursing home environments, and maybe some of you are wondering just how important or beneficial these sessions are to our elderly relatives or friends. In this blog I will look at what is reminiscence, why it is important and how you can incorporate reminiscence into your visits.

What is reminiscence?

The definition of Reminiscence is – “a story told about a past event remembered by the narrator”. If we look at ...

Beechtree was a hive of activity during the month of June.
The start of June saw some of the staff at Beechtree take part in the VHI women’s marathon, with all proceeds being donated to the Alzheimer’s society of Ireland. We had a fantastic day as the sun shone high in the sky. The 10k run/walk was trained for over the previous weeks and all ladies did themselves proud. We returned proudly with our ...

Hi All, sorry this news from May is a little late, we have been so busy its taken time to try and get back to write it all down.
Beechtree had a great month of May with lots of activities packed in.
We started it off with the Alzheimer’s tea party with all proceeds being donated to the Alzheimer’s association of Ireland. Janice and her crew whipped up some delicious pastries and all was served on our best china.

We had ...

Mindfulness

In a busy world it can often be difficult to find some quiet time to ourselves. Here at Beechtree we run to a different time, a time which promotes and nurtures a space where we can practise this worthwhile tradition of Mindfulness Meditation.

What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness is the practice of sitting down daily in a quiet place and holding our awareness of the present moment. Yes it is that straight forward! Mindfulness is not religious. It is a form of ...

What is an Advocate?

Have you ever thought about becoming an advocate? Are you wondering what is involved in being an advocate and what responsibility might go with it? In this blog I hope to answer a few of the questions in relation to becoming a volunteer advocate in a Nursing Home.

The word advocate literally means “a person who puts a case on someone else’s behalf”. While there are many elderly people in Nursing homes who have families and friends ...

Beechtree had a busy and fun April. We’ve had some great afternoons with live music like Celtic View, Aidan Flynn, Peter & Niamh, Billy McGee, Martin Carrick, Brian Carey and for the first time The Divil and the Damsal played for us. All were great fun and brought lots of dancing to Beechtree.

Our trusty Minibus brought us on a couple of road trips this month. A very memorable afternoon was spent in the Guinness Storehouse where the ...

For anyone who has been to Beechtree Nursing home you may have noticed the beautiful Mural painted on the front of the original Murragh House. I myself have often wondered what the painting depicts so I set on a path of finding out who painted it and the story behind it.

We contacted Cllr. David O’ Connor who is also an avid local historian and he kindly contacted the Pentony family who originally lived in ...

The Fair deal-Help!
At a time when stress can already be high the idea of having a loved one entering a nursing home can seem even harder by the daunting task of applying for the fair deal. When people begin to discuss this process it can be easy to get distracted by hearsay and what other people have heard. We hope this short instruction on the Fair Deal process may eliminate some of the stress and leave you with more ...

What is Dementia?

There are lots of questions surrounding Dementia. What is it? How do I know if I have it? What is Alzheimer’s? What can I do if I think I have dementia?
It’s a scary word and people often think a dark future lies ahead. In this blog I hope to answer some of these questions you might have and provide some help as to who you can turn to for help if Dementia is affecting your life. I ...