At Simblija Care Home, we understand that moving into a care home can be a difficult transition for anyone, especially when you’re moving out of your own home where you’ve been surrounded by your own possessions, belongings, and memories collected over many, many years. Our highly qualified team do their utmost to help residents settle in and feel at home from the very start of their journey with us. We take great care to design rooms which feel warm and welcoming, and which offer the finest amenities, including comfortable armchairs, spacious wardrobes, dressing tables, flat-screen TVs, private telephones, and more. We also equip each room with plenty of safety features so that residents feel secure in an environment that encourages their independence.

That said, at Simblija, we recognise the importance for residents to personalise their rooms to make their surroundings feel more homely and suited to their unique identity. Adding personal touches and flourishes to a room can bring great comfort to residents and ease them into a new way of life. So, if a resident needs some inspiration to better personalise their room, here are some helpful ideas to get them started.

1 – Decorate your room with photos & pictures

Putting up personal photos and pictures is a great first step to make any room feel more homely. Being surrounded by favourite memories, whether it’s a wedding, Christening, or a treasured holiday, encourages residents to keep their most precious memories alive and fosters a sense of closeness to the people who are most important to them. Pictures are also a great talking point, which can help residents build meaningful connections with members of staff, visitors, and fellow residents who stop by their rooms.

2 – The importance of smells & sound

Familiar smells and sounds can also go a long way in helping residents personalise their room. In fact, many studies have found that odours are strongly linked to a sense of homeliness and can conjure up vivid memories. For this reason, we encourage residents to replicate the smell of their home through items such as scented candles, favourite fresh flowers, or essential oils.

Likewise, sound and music also play an important role in offering comfort and can soften the transition into a new environment. Bringing along a treasured music collection, which residents can listen to whenever they wish, can trigger happy feelings and really help residents feel more at peace within their new home.

3 – Bring items of sentimental value

Whether it’s a family heirloom or a special keepsake of emotional value, certain personal items can create a real sense of home within a room. Memory plays a significant part in the value of such items, which are often linked with special moments among family and loved ones and speak to that person’s history and identity. Placing such belongings, which can range from ornaments to small trinkets like a piece of jewellery, within easy reach around the room will add an authentic personal touch that really sparks happiness and comfort.

4 – Furniture from home creates a familiar environment

Adding certain pieces of furniture or soft furnishings from home, such as a favourite armchair or cushion, is another great way to personalise a room and make it feel warmer and more familiar. Due to several health and safety issues, permission must always be requested from the Simblija care team when residents are considering bringing larger items of furniture to the home or wish to make amendments to the room, such as hanging a picture on the wall.

5 – Create new memories with familiar faces

Key to making any new environment feel like home is to create new memories in it. That’s why, we greatly encourage family and friends to visit residents as much as possible, so that they can better associate their room with the people they care about the most. What’s more, at Simblija we have taken great care to provide an assortment of activities for everyone to enjoy right on the premises. Whether it’s enjoying a delicious lunch together at The Orchard restaurant, attending mass as a family at our chapel, or combining a visit with a relative with a Pilates class at Revive, there are many fantastic options to make the most of your time visiting your loved one at Simblija Care Home.

Get in touch today to book your 1-to-1 visit and learn more about life at Simblija!

At Simblija, we treat you and your loved ones like we would our own families. That’s why we promise the highest standard of care, a beautiful and safe home-like environment, and a fulfilling lifestyle for each resident who forms part of our community.

Trust is the foundation of everything we do. Our care team takes the time to get to know our residents personally and provide personalised journeys so that they live with dignity and respect, which is why residents have the bond that they do with our care team. By delivering our services in a reliable and dependable way, we hope to provide peace of mind and reassurance that your loved one is being taken care of in a community that truly cares.

Exclusively private care homes, such as Simblja Care Home, provide a holistic solution for when an elderly person requires personalised care that goes beyond what is typically available through a hospital or public health system. By employing a highly specialised team of healthcare professionals, we offer individualised care plans that focus on both physical and non-physical needs of your loved ones, taking into consideration everything from dietary requirements, medication plans, as well as the levels of hands-on help required for everyday activities, such as housekeeping and bathroom assistance. Our caregivers are on hand around the clock, whether it’s for regular medical checks or in case of an emergency, while a team of dedicated security guards provides the highest levels of safety 24/7.

Over and above providing physical care, private care homes are also better equipped to see to the residents’ physical and psychosocial needs. With a variety of room types available, there are more options for residents to maintain their space and privacy, which consequently helps them settle into the residence and feel more at home.

This is what sets us apart from other care homes; apart from attributing value to providing the best physical and emotional care, we also give our residents a holistic experience unlike any other.

Whether it’s a friendly hello, taking the time to get to know our residents on a personal level, or listening to their concerns and worries, we’ve made it our mission to make life at Simblija a welcoming experience, every step of the way. Nothing fills us with a greater sense of joy than seeing our residents steadily making the Simblija community their own.

At AX Care, we love to give back to the community in any way we can. As well as offering compassionate and quality care to all our residents and patients at Simblija Care Home, we seek to extend a helping hand to persons in need wherever possible. That’s why when Mr Kenneth Delia, CEO of Hospice Malta, reached out to us for potential collaboration in aid of hospice patients, we were only too happy to offer our support.

Through this initiative, which was launched in May 2022, we’re proud to welcome hospice patients to our Revive Physiotherapy & Aquatic Centre on a complimentary basis every week. Assisted by qualified nurses and physiotherapists, hospice patients can avail themselves of our one-of-a-kind hydrotherapy pool, which was purposefully designed to offer accessibility to anyone suffering from impaired mobility and chronic pain. The pool’s warm water makes it ideal for palliative care as it’s known to soothe the body, relax often tense muscles, and alleviate pain.

“The entire team at AX Care greatly admires all the crucial work that Hospice Malta does. As our two organisations share common values of providing compassionate care and dignity to vulnerable people, we strongly believe this collaboration is a natural extension of our core mission and we’re proud to be doing something tangible to help. It continues to be a huge privilege to welcome hospice patients to our state-of-the-art hydrotherapy centre where they can benefit from holistic services that have a direct impact on their quality of life,” says Charmaine Montesin, General Manager at AX Care.

Launched in 1989, Hospice Malta is a registered NGO that provides and promotes palliative care for persons suffering from end-of-life cancer and motor neuron disease across Malta and Gozo. Should you wish to support Hospice Malta or learn more about its vital services, please visit https://hospicemalta.org/about/

For more information on the publicly available services and facilities at Revive Physiotherapy & Aquatic Centre located at Hilltop Gardens in Naxxar, click here.

Christmas Extravaganza at AX Care

Are you ready for the Christmas season? We definitely are! In Malta, we love our Christmas season and soon you’ll be able to see houses with colourful, festive lights popping up all over the country, much earlier than tradition expects!

The Hilltop Gardens Christmas Market

The festive season’s preparations are in full swing at Hilltop Gardens. Our team is preparing a luxe Christmas Extravaganza in the Village. On Sunday 4^th December, we shall be opening our doors to the public to come and experience our annual Christmas Market, taking place within The Crescent Lobby, Triq L-Inkwina, Naxxar. The area shall be brimming with local artisans selling all types of products that make for perfect gifts for others, or simply to spoil yourself this Christmas season! Among the stalls you’ll find rich spices, ceramics, cakes and sweet treats, handmade items, decorative objects, exotic-smelling candles, and so much more! The smell of cinnamon-loaded mulled wine wafting through the stalls will tempt you and your loved ones to stop for a glass.

Our Christmas market shall be open from 10am till 5pm with parking available on a first come first serve basis which will make your visit that much more pleasurable.

The Food that Brings Us Together

Christmas is not Christmas if it doesn’t involve the food that brings generations together at one table. Our expert kitchen team at The Orchard have prepared glorious festive menus crafted with passion and including the freshest of seasonal local produce and the best meat cuts from across the miles, simply for the pure enjoyment of patrons.

Give our team a call on 2235 1045 to book your table ahead of time!

Festive Family Events at Simblija

Our community at Simblija will be well and truly cared for over the Christmas season with a program of events jam-packed with entertainment and activities that bring residents and their families together. Santa Claus is expected to visit and do room rounds to meet our residents. Santa’s big red bag is always a cherished gift that puts wide smiles on all our residents’ faces.

Christmas Day mass at The Chapel will be celebrated by Chaplain Fr Julian Cassar at 10.30 am and animated by Ylenia Vella, followed by Christmas Lunch at noon. A number of masses will be said at The Chapel over New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day with one at 5 pm and another at 7 pm on the eve, and on New Year’s Day at 10.30 am and 11.30 am in English, both animated by Ylenia Vella.

At Simblija, the Christmas season is not just about entertainment but also about active ageing and about residents living a fulfilled life surrounded by family and friends, even at this festive time. Our dedicated events that they look forward to so much and that go a long way in lifting their spirits, however, are the cherry on the proverbial cake.