Activities at Austen House Care Home
Our teams are trained to enrich the lives of residents through stimulating the mind, body and soul, and taking the time to learn about each person to ensure everyone receives support that adds enrichment to their life.
Here at Austen House, we like to get to know those we support, and from the day of moving in, our activities team will spend time on an individual basis learning about interests, likes and dislikes, life history and favourite hobbies.
We provide a wide range of activities, from one-to-one time, manicures and board games, through to live entertainment, prize bingo and our ever-popular cheese & wine events. Our activities team will also tailor individual activities to ensure residents can have as much or as little involvement as they choose.
In the summer months, greater focus is given to outdoor activities, such as barbecues and garden parties. In conjunction with our Chef, themed events are planned throughout the year, bringing activities and food together.
In their pink polo shirts, our activities team are easily identifiable and embrace ideas and suggestions from residents and their relatives to ensure that the activities provided keep those we support engaged, stimulated and entertained.
Activities and Events Partnerships
As part of our bespoke life-enrichment programmes, we host a number of live virtual events in the home on a regular basis through a number of partnerships with places of interest and world class performance companies
Life at Austen House Care Home
Valentine’s Day!
Austen House was filled with flowers, cards and sweets in celebration of St Valentine’s Day.
Staff and residents celebrated the day of love enjoying a live music performance that took place at the home. Local singer, Gary, performed a selection of love songs including Love Is In The Air, All You Need Is Love, Love Me Tender and the residents joined in with the singing, dancing and clapping.
Also, our residents and their loved ones enjoyed a romantic and delicious Valentine’s Day dinner organized by our fantastic Hospitality and Life Enrichment team and spending the day of love together.
Stela, a resident at Austen House said: “It has been a lovely day. It was wonderful to see everyone go into so much effort to get involved with the day’s festivities. I really had a very special and wonderful time with my husband.”
Birthday Celebration!
We had a wonderful time celebrating Gill's 87th birthday in style at Austen House.
The home held a surprise birthday party for Gill with live music by Jim and a delicious homemade cake made by our head chef in honour of her birthday.
Gill was joined by staff, family, friends and other residents and became very emotional as everyone started singing Happy Birthday to her.
She was very happy dancing, clapping and felt very special to be surrounded by so many people. Gill said that when she came to Austen House, she never thought she would meet such lovely people and make so many friends.
Gill was also showered with gifts, cards and flowers from all her friends and family and commented that she felt like the "Queen for a day".
Happy Birthday Gill!
Burns Night!
Residents and staff at Austen House were involved in a wide range of activities to celebrate Burns Night.
To honour the famous Scottish poet, we hosted a poetry and music session to learn more about the Scottish Country Dancing and the Ceilidh to mark the Scottish institution.
Our residents enjoyed a hearty meal of Scotch broth, Haggis with neeps and tatties all prepared by our Chef.
It was also a perfect occasion to enjoy a Scotch whisky tasting and had great fun discovering how much, or in some cases how little, we knew about Scotland with our brilliant Scottish quiz.
We all had a wonderful time learning more about Robert Burns and the Scottish culture and traditions.
International Flower Day!
Residents and staff at Austen House celebrated International Flower Day in style, a great way in mid-winter to bring joy and happiness into the home.
International Flower Day promotes the psychological boost that flowers can give to people. From growing and nurturing plants and flowers, to gifting flowers to show love and appreciation, and sometimes just the simple act of admiring their beauty – flowers have the power to make someone’s day.
Our residents took part in flower-based activities throughout the day including a flower arranging session, reminiscing about their gardens and favourite flowers and a flower quiz which everyone really enjoyed. Their collective knowledge about flowers gained from years of gardening experience was very impressive.
It was a lovely day enjoyed by all.
Elvis Presley’ Birthday Celebration!
Our home was transformed into Graceland to mark what would have been Elvis Presley’s 89th birthday on 8 January.
It is estimated that Elvis has sold over one billion records worldwide so to honour the undisputed King of Rock & Roll, the staff and residents enjoyed a fantastic day of music, fun and dancing.
Lots of our residents are big Elvis fans and love his music. We’ve had a fantastic day listening to all his hits, finding out about his early life and what influenced him and watching old Elvis movies, he was such an incredible talent. Also, we had a live music show with Gary as Elvis, and everyone enjoyed singing and showing their dance moves. It is amazing how many songs he recorded and we all surprised ourselves by how many we remembered.
Maurice, a resident said: “I loved Elvis growing up. Listening to all his old hits has brought back so many memories. We’ve all had a brilliant time reminiscing about our dance hall days!”
Santa visit!
Here at Austen House we had a fantastic Christmas Day, which involved themed movies, singing and dancing, family visits followed by a beautiful festive lunch with turkey, roast potatoes, pigs in blankets, puddings and cakes.
Also, in the morning our residents were treated to a surprise visit from Santa Claus, his elf and Mrs Claus.
The home was filled with festive cheer when Santa arrived blasting loud cries of “Ho, Ho, Ho”, he sat with residents and handed out their Christmas presents.
No matter how old you are Santa always puts a smile on people’s faces and it’s clear that everyone was excited and busy opening their presents!
