Activities at Milford House Care Home
The Activities Team at Milford House are dedicated to providing a range of stimulating activities for both groups and individuals, that promote both physical and mental wellbeing based upon resident's interests both past and present. As a member of the National Activity Providers Association (NAPA) the team are always striving to incorporate best practice into the array of activities on offer and to enhance their own skills through qualification with NAPA to NVQ Level 3 in Activities Provision. The team combine weekly activity favourites such as sherry mornings with special events, musical entertainments, slide shows, outings in our own mini-bus as well as interacting with local community groups such as Plain Arts Salisbury to showcase resident art and creativity and others who come into the home to interact with our residents. Milford House also benefits from a strong network of volunteers who support the Activity Team as they deliver their programme and who, along with friends and relatives, are always welcome to come and join in our sessions and outings.
Gale Louw
Gale joined the Milford team in 2019, initially as a carer but has gradually transferred over to the Activities Team where she is now the full time Coordinator. Gale has a passion to create a comprehensive and inclusive programme of vibrant events for residents, family
members and friends to enjoy and, along with the rest of team, ensure that each resident is able to participate in meaningful activities tailored to their likes and dislikes.
Originally from South Africa, when not at work Gale loves nothing more than exploring the UK, catching up with family and friends, being creative across a variety of disciplines and keeping her eyes out for great activities and events she can bring back to the home for
residents to enjoy.
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 Milford House Care Home
A Snowy Start
Residents art sessions have recently been inspired by the snowy scenes that we have seen around the country on our televisions. While the snow may not actually have fallen at Milford House, that didn’t stop our imaginations filling in!
Some absolutely gorgeous snow scenes were the result, making us all feel pleased to be warm and cosy inside.
Spreading the Christmas Spirit
Staff and residents at Milford House decided to cheer up the local community by making some Christmas baubles and leaving them out in baskets near the home for passers-by to collect and take home.
We left a message inside each one asking people that, if they felt like it, to share a picture of the bauble on their tree or wherever they put it.
A Cosy Christmas
Residents at Milford have been enjoying sitting by our fire and having their pictures taken to send to family or friends by way of Christmas Greetings.
The fire and decorations have gone up in our conservatory and we are all basking in the glow of this amazing photo backdrop that is so realistic.
It has created a real buzz in the home and has really got everyone into the Christmas spirit.
The Christmas Spirit
Residents were delighted to be able to give a socially-distanced welcome to the Mayor and Mayoress of Salisbury, who switched on our Christmas Lights.
Residents joined the Mayor in counting down from 10 as the Mayoress pressed the red button at the appropriate moment and our lights sprang into life!
The whole of the front of the home is now twinkling with fairy lights and adorned with three small Christmas trees. At the same time, our central courtyard also sprang to life as the lights on our beautiful 15 foot tree came on. This tree was very kindly donated to us by a local farm that sells Christmas trees, and it provides a wonderful focal point for everyone to admire.
Keeping Fit
As we get further into the winter months here at Milford House and are unable to use the gardens as much, it is important that everyone gets the opportunity to maintain their exercise levels.
Jackie, who normally comes to our home each month to keep us up to our work, cannot visit at present and, so we have gone online via Zoom. T
his has worked really well, and we have all become at ease with the new technology. Jackie keeps us up to things with the regular Zoom session, and then we ensure that we keep the work going in between. It’s also a lovely way to keep in touch with Jackie, who has been coming to the home for over 10 years, and we can’t wait until we can see her in person again.
Artist of the Month
Earlier this year, residents at Milford House were intending to take part in the Salisbury Art Trail and were working hard to complete their exhibits for this event. Sadly, along with so many things, this had to be cancelled due to the pandemic, but we were determined that all the hard work and preparation should not go to waste, so over the summer, we have created a small art gallery area in the home and, in September, launched the first of our Milford Artist of the Month exhibits.
Pictured here is our Artist of the Month for November. The gallery space is open to any resident or member of staff who would like to exhibit their creative work – be it painting, crafts, photography or anything else! We are excited to see what wonderful and diverse artistic expression there is at Milford House.
