Activities at Kernow House Care Home
Our Activities Coordinators organise varied and regular events. The activities that take place depend on what our residents tell us they are interested in and the feedback we get from their families. We currently have pop-up cafes where we socialise and maybe visit the hairdresser. We have regular live music events, a storyteller and visits from animals and we are often joined by families or friends during our social activities where they are always most welcome.
Living in Cornwall the surrounding countryside offers many beauty spots and we often have trips out to wherever our residents would like to go. At other times a walk to nearby shops or cafes is what we enjoy.
Louise is our hairdresser and she is with us twice a week. Louise also supports us during our weekly Namaste sessions where she offers hand massages in a relaxing environment. Every Thursday afternoon we have a time of worship supported by our local community. Our ice cream van, Kernow Kones, and our mobile pub, Kernow Keg, also make a weekly appearance. We have monthly clubs, when we play bingo or watch a film in our pop-up cinema. Residents on all units are invited to take part in a monthly Resident’s Meeting and they tell us what they would like.
Apart from these regular events, we also celebrate special occasions and often have musical entertainers to visit but we also make our own fun. All staff take part in fancy dress or charity events that we support and often what we do evolves through interaction between residents and care or activity staff. All this makes Kernow House a vibrant place to be where things happen both as group activities as well as on an individual level.
Bea Porup
Bea has many years of experience working in elderly care and both experience and training in dementia care. She has also worked extensively with people with Huntington's disease. Bea works closely with Sue, Jackie and our management team, nurses, carers and kitchen team to ensure our home has a vibrant environment with lots of events happening and varied opportunities for having both new and familiar experiences, making sure the people living here lead a rich and fulfilling life.
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 Kernow House Care Home
Alpaca Visit
Residents tell us they like to see animals in the home, so we have a variety of animals who visit us regularly. Wayfarer and Thunderball came for a visit from Lakemoor Alpacas.
Both are very young boys, three and four and a half, and they are learning how to be great therapy animals. We think they are doing very well, but it always helps, when there’s a little treat in the form of a carrot stick. Lots of people had a chance to feed and touch the alpacas and Wayfarer and Thunderball seemed to enjoy it, humming out loudly, which is their way of chatting to each other.
Valentine's Day Celebrations!
We often mark special days and Valentine’s Day was magical with lots of love in the home. We had a tree where people could write special messages to their loved ones on hearts or angels.
We had Oomph! Activity books with interesting information about Valentine and on the day, we gave every resident a red rose and wished them Happy Valentine's Day. Some roses were passed on to loved ones.
Love comes in many forms, and we have enjoyed having the opportunity to share some amongst ourselves.
Minibus Trip
We have a brand new mini bus. It is lovely to drive and very comfortable to be a passenger, so now we are getting out in the Cornish nature in comfort.
There are so many beautiful places to visit and we go out as often as possible. Some residents prefer to sit on the bus and have a drive around all the beautiful places that are so close to us, while others like to visit places of interest, go shopping or to a garden centre.
Flower Arranging
To mark International Flower Day, we did some flower arranging.
A group of residents got together to create displays of beautiful flowers for the home. We also planted the indoor garden, which is really a wheelbarrow, with spring flowers, so now we are waiting to see the little daffodils flower to remind us that spring is on its way.
We know how much pleasure flowers can bring and if you are not able to go outside to enjoy them, we bring them indoors.
Zoo Lab
We had our first visit to the Zoo Lab when Emily, the ranger, brought exotic animals in for us to see, touch and hear about.
We learnt about Gary, the giant snail, Slinky, the giant millipede, Tank, the giant forest scorpion, Lenny, the corn snake, Dandelion, the leopard gecko and Jelly, the white tree frog.
Residents tell us they like having animals visiting us, and it was a special treat seeing these exotic animals. Everyone agreed it was a fantastic experience and we learnt a lot.
Table Tennis
We are the proud owners of a full-size table tennis set. During residents' meetings, we asked residents if there is anything they would like to buy with money donated to the Residents' Fund.
A table tennis table was suggested and seconded by other residents. It is here now, and we have had a good time playing. It turns out, there are many skilled table tennis players amongst us and some are very competitive.
When we finished playing, we folded the table up and put it away, but it is very easy to set up again, so the challenge is on for anyone who fancies a match.
