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.
Read our brochure 'Life-enriching activities' for more information about life in our care homes.
Read our brochure
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
Remembrance Day
Residents have asked for more items to be available to do crafts and we have responded by signing up to Creative Mojo. They send us a large parcel with themed craft ideas, which we have chosen beforehand. The first one had poppies to be made and displayed on a waterfall mesh and the second one has a stag, which we will decorate and display. There’s something for everyone in the parcels and we really enjoy doing the crafts.
Remembrance Day
Many residents like to take part in the events connected to Remembrance Day, so we have made our own poppy field in the wheelbarrow. We have also bought a poppy wreath which will be laid by a resident on the War Memorial in town. The television programmes will be watched with great interest and there is a Live Event from English National Ballet.
Forest of Hope
We have started an exciting working relationship with St Catherine’s Primary School and the Sensory Trust. We will do intergenerational work and the topic for this first autumn term is to make a 'Forest of Hope' by painting leaves and writing messages of hope on the back. We will then exchange the leaves and display them in the home and the school.
Kernow House is part of a national England-wide project with 110 care homes taking part and between us we will make a Forest of Hope. We have started by collecting an drying leaves so we can draw around them.
Liver Events
During lockdown, the life enrichment team at Barchester enables all homes to watch live events or talks using computers or tablets. They were very popular, so they will continue to be available for us to take part in.
The topics vary, and lately, we have taken part in a wine tasting event and a virtual cruise with quizzes and cooking demonstrations.
The live events are interactive and we learn something new and interesting every time.
Fundraising Fun
We have regular fundraising events and support many charities. We raised £115.97 for Macmillan Cancer Support by having a 50 pence sale, a raffle and a coffee morning.
Every Friday is dress down Friday, when we encourage staff to donate 50 pence. The money is then donated to a charity and this time we chose Jeans For Genes, and were able to support the charity with £63.41.
Harvest Festival
We held a Harvest Festival Service with support from Carol Teague, who works as a carer at Kernow House. Carol is also a lay Methodist preacher. She delivered a service with readings, blessings and prayers and we sang some well-known and loved Harvest hymns. Afterwards, Ruth Dymond sang Harvest hymns and gospel for us and we joined in, making it a very special afternoon of worship.
