Alpaca fun for Oakdale residents

Alpacas enjoy being around people and animal therapy is believed to have significant health benefits like lowering blood pressure and stress levels. Animal contact is also beneficial for those living with dementia, such as establishing eye contact and stretching to stroke them.

As part of a wellbeing session, Wendy Williams of Alpaca Adventure visited our Oakdale care home, where her alpacas spent time with residents, many of whom live with dementia.

During their visit, Wendy and the alpacas spent time in the communal areas as well as individual bedrooms so that all residents, regardless of mobility, could enjoy meeting and stroking them.

Lauren Tompkins, Wellbeing Manager at Oakdale care home, said: “This was a unique opportunity for residents and staff to meet these beautiful animals and find out more about them. It proved to be a real success and fits very well with our regular activities and wellbeing-based approach to care at Oakdale.”

Rachel Dryden, Chief Executive, said: “It was wonderful to welcome Guinness and Greyfriars Rufus into our home. It’s not every day you get to meet an alpaca and they are so gentle and sociable. The residents enjoy it and the staff do too.

“We encourage bringing animals into our care homes and love seeing the residents faces light up. It brings a whole new, fun and interesting dynamic to the home and is a very social activity.”

Oakdale is our purpose-built care home supporting 84 residents, offering residential, nursing and dementia care. Situated in Poole, the home is at the centre of the local community and only a short drive from Poole town centre and Canford Heath.

The home is part of the Encore family that includes Fairmile Grange in Christchurch, Great Oaks in Bournemouth and Hamble Heights in Fareham.

For more information about Encore Care Homes and Oakdale please call 01202 878149 or visit www.encorecarehomes.co.uk