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
Coffee Day
Milford House Care Home in Salisbury has held a ‘Coffee Day’ in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support as part of the world’s biggest ever coffee morning. A fantastic array of cakes were produced by our Head Chef, Hayley Dibden, to support the event and raffle and tombola tickets with a lovely array of prizes were on offer throughout the day. By the end, we had raised over £60, which will be donated to the charity.
Residents, staff, families and friends were delighted to support the event and enjoyed getting involved and contributing to this worthwhile cause, as the vast majority of people have been touched by cancer in some way, either by personal experience or through wider family and friends, and recognise the wonderful work undertaken by Macmillan.
Team Milford Tops the Charts
Staff at Milford House were competing in the Spire FM daily quiz, ‘War of the Works’, against the Trussell Trust. Cheered on by Residents, who were tuned into their radios daily, the team came out on top, scoring 44 points out of a possible 50. The weekly prize was pizzas for the workplace, which we donated to the Alabare charity in Salisbury that looks after the homeless. However, team Milford can’t rest on their laurels, as they may be back on the radio in December to compete in the grand finals, as currently we are tied as the leading team so far this year.
It's a 10 for Sister Aurora!
General Manager, Phil Chapman, was delighted to present Aurora Bince with her Long Service Award, as she has worked at Barchester for 10 years – all of them here at Milford House. Aurora, who can be found looking after residents on the ground floor, commented that the time had flown by and that she is looking forward to the next 10.
Alpacas Again
Residents were delighted to welcome Wendy and her alpacas back to the home. This time she brought Sirrocco and Midnight Prince, who were both behaved very well – the latter especially so, especially considering he is only 14 months old and this was his first trip. Everyone fell in love with them and we were very reluctant to let them go home. They have become firm favourites here at Milford and we will be welcoming them back again before too long.
Cheering on Team Milford
Starting on the week commencing 4th September, a team of Milford staff members from all departments have been competing in Spire FM’s 'War of the Works' against the Trussell Trust', also based in Salisbury. The team have to answer up to 10 questions each day in one minute – which flies by – and, at the end of the week, one team is declared the winner.
Residents have been tuning into their radios each morning at 11:30 to follow the team’s progress and, as of Wednesday 6th September, we have achieved a score of 29 out of a possible 30 points.
A 'Diva-lightful' Evening
Residents and visitors at Milford enjoyed a fabulous early evening of music from Karen G., who sang songs from the pop divas for us while we enjoyed a buffet meal. Originally scheduled to be in the garden, we decided, due to the rather chilly wind, to relocate indoors, but this did nothing to dampen the enthusiasm of all those who attended and joined in singing a range of familiar songs. It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening and it was rounded off perfectly with a rousing rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ for one resident.
