Residents at two Perthshire care homes have become “pen pals” in an effort to stay connected during the coronavirus outbreak.
People living at Rumbling Bridge and Dalnagar, both run by the Balhousie Care group, have taken up old-fashioned letter writing workshops to help build friendships while under lockdown.
It comes after Balhousie took the decision to block all-but-essential visits from their care homes across Tayside in an effort to curb the outbreak.
Staff said the new pen pal writing clubs help residents communicate as the pandemic makes relationships more challenging.
“Some of our service users have not had a letter through the post in years,” said Rumbling Bridge’s activities coordinator Carol Stillie. “We had great fun writing the letters, and it triggered lots of memories and conversation.”
Carol and her counterpart at Dalnagar in Crieff, Hope Leslie, plan to continue the project and hope to bring the pen pals together, when it is safe to do so.
More care homes in Balhousie group are expected to launch similar clubs in the coming weeks.
