Alpacas pay visit to care home residents

A pair of alpacas surprised residents at a Welsh care home, joining them at afternoon tea and even taking a trip upstairs to see residents in their rooms.

The alpacas - named Alex and Bethany - visited The Oaks Care Home in Newtown, Powys, as part of activities coordinator Izzy Titley and registered manager Daniel Hart's bid to bring exciting new ideas to the home.

The alpacas initially joined residents enjoying an afternoon tea.

Alpaca Bethany was introduced to one of the home’s carers and namesake Bethan, who said: “It made my day to give Bethany a big hug.”

Both alpacas took a trip up in the lift to visit 100-year-old resident Frances Williams in her bedroom. She said: “Oh my gosh. What a shock! I was just watching afternoon television when they walked in. It was lovely to stroke them.”

Hart, 42, who has worked in the care sector for 20 years, said: “We have a great team at The Oaks and we love coming up with new and unusual ideas to brighten up the lives of our residents.

Then they had a trip upstairs to meet more residents.

“Some of our residents mentioned that they’d love a trip to Chester Zoo but we thought it would be more fun to bring the animals to them. The alpacas were a big hit and it was wonderful to see the look on everyone’s faces when they arrived.

“I believe it’s so important for our residents to have a full and interesting life and we’ve got bags of creative ideas including a schedule of events to get them out into the heart of the community.

“We’re fixing trips to the local pub, shopping visits so they can buy treats for their loved ones, cinema and theatre outings and we’re even planning to go to the local bingo hall. We’re hoping they bump into people they know and will get a lot out of doing normal things.”

The alpacas were from Admirals View Alpacas.

Titley added: “I’m leaving The Oaks in a few weeks to travel round the world and I wanted to pull some final tricks out of my hat to surprise the residents. I told them we were just having our usual Friday afternoon bingo.

“They met Digby the dog at Christmas and that was brilliant pet therapy but we’ve stepped it up bringing alpacas into the home. All the residents love animals and it was lovely that the alpacas were free to walk around the home and interact with everyone.”

The Huacaya alpacas are part of a therapeutic team of seven from Admirals View Alpacas in Shropshire, which is run by Sarah Tickle.

Tickle said: “Alpacas are very friendly animals and they loved their visit to The Oaks Care Home. They’re comfortable in the lift so even residents on different floors didn’t miss out on their visit.”

The Oaks is run by the Sandstone Care Group.

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