Activities at Oaklands Care Home
Our home is always full of life, and we can thank our wonderful Activities Coordinators for this. Dedication to creating a unique and interesting activities programme is what sets us apart from other homes. We always take into consideration that some people would prefer to pursue their own interests, which is why our team strive to incorporative activities that cater to a wide range of tastes and hobbies. Our trips out are always fun and exciting as well, and residents are guaranteed to return with stories to tell their loved ones!
Anna Bate & Jo Lawn
Anna is our Activity Lead. She started working at Barchester over 14 years ago at our sister home Hilton Park. Having built strong relationships with staff, residents and families, Anna brings lots of fun to our home. Anna loves to sing, dance and laugh and generally brings oodles of joy to ours days.
Working alongside Anna is Jo who started her career here at Oaklands as a carer on Elms community in 2014 developing a passion for dementia care and completing her social care N+VQ Levels 2 and 3. Jo Joined the activity team 3 years ago and has since become the homes dementia champion, championing for a better lifestyle for our resident through staff training and regular audits.
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 Oaklands Care Home
Mother’s day
We were honoured to have Jackie from Mill blossom flowers a local business in the next village to come into the home and hold a flower arranging workshop for some of our lady’s and their familys,the morning was extremely special for all. We were treated to glasses of Prosecco and some delicious sweet treats throughout the morning too.
Jackie gave us a wealth of knowledge from names of flowers to the way in which to arrange them in our teacups, we were offered a huge variety of beautiful fragrant flowers which filled the room with such a wonderful smell for the following couple of days. Once we had finished our teacups Jackie showed us another very simple but so effective craft of twig hearts which now hang on residents walls with pride. We look forward to welcoming Jackie back into the home for more fun workshops
Stay & Play
Our monthly stay and play session is going from strength to strength with both our little people and residents feeling the benefits with confidence growing around each other. It’s such a pleasure to watch. It is giving our residents that attend a purpose especially at the end when they take part in the clear up operation. Residents are sharing their knowledge of bringing up their children with our parents too sharing tales of sleepless nights was a theme this month.
Pancake Day
We enjoyed a fabulous pancake day with our residents. We opened the Oaklands pancake parlour which went down a treat with both residents and families ,it was even mobile making various stops to residents cared for in their rooms. Resident chose from various delicious toppings. Some went for the traditional sugar and lemon but some were very keen on the cream saying “ you can’t have too much cream”
Burns Night
We have celebrated Burns night today with some traditional music from Richard and his Bagpipes, Richard performed most of the music outside the building as the noise created was too loud inside but neither the less it was fantastic and residents enjoyed listening and some watching from the windows, it was great in our courtyards as the residents cared for in their beds enjoyed the music too. Residents went on to enjoy a traditional lunch of Haggis and our looking forward to whisky, shortbread and Burns night quiz.
The Importance of Sensory Activities
We care for lots of our residents in the comfort of their beds ,and we do lots of sensory activities exploring their senses. We have used fibre optic touch lamps and glow sticks to engage with both their visual and touch senses. The activities can be very calming for our residents living with Dementia, it can encourage relaxation and improve the overall well-being for our residents.
Both Norma and Jane loved the fibre optic lamp and the colours of the glow sticks alone with the touch of the silky scarfs .
Stay and Play!
Our first stay and play session of the new year was fabulous, with both our little people there mums and our residents having a great time interacting with each other, sharing tales, songs were sung and most of all lots of laughter was shared.
Intergenerational activities are beneficial to all parties involved, it can help both feel valued and cared for, it can help to increase self-esteem and feelings of well-being.
