Daily Life & Leisure with Nellsar Care Homes

Keeping mind, body and soul stimulated, healthy and alert is a fundamental aspect of caring for our residents. Nellsar Care Homes employ specialist Activities Co-ordinators who work alongside the Care teams and each individual to learn about their favourite past-times, interests they haven’t yet explored and their social preferences. Our Activities Co-ordinators are responsible for the personal, social and leisure activities that go to form a resident’s new lifestyle. With the personal, social and leisure activities available to our residents, we aim to support them and help enrich the quality of their life. Maintaining their sense of well-being is essential, as is respecting a person’s dignity, choice and physical and mental ability. Each day brings new opportunity for our residents to live the life they want. Our Care teams are at their disposal to try new hobbies or simply re-visit a treasured activity.

Why are daily activities important to people living in a Care Home?

Daily activities are very important to everyone who lives in a Care Home – whether it’s a Residential, Nursing or Dementia Care Home. Conducting varied meaningful activities on a day-to-day basis helps us retain a sense-of-self and independence. A mix of focused and relaxed activity can provide us with stimulation and distraction, helping to improve and maintain mental agility and physical mobility. Everyone still wants to feel they are living a lifestyle they have chosen for themselves.

Can you tailor daily life to an individual?

Our Care teams and professionals help build a detailed profile of each resident before they move in to a Nellsar Care Home and a lifestyle programme can be developed to reflect each individual’s preferred things to do. We strive to care for each person – mind, body and soul, while respecting all their religious and spiritual needs. From learning about a person’s life history, favourite pastimes and new interests, we can tailor the things they do and experience on a day-to-day and weekly basis – whether they are a social butterfly or a more reserved individual. Our Activities Co-ordinators provide opportunities for residents to explore a variety of activities, clubs, social groups and lifestyle choices in an inclusive environment.

How do you encourage residents to socialise with each other?

In an inclusive community setting, we encourage residents to socialise with each other through varied group entertainment, smaller group activities, sing-a-longs, music shows, quizzes, card and board games and group outings. These activities simply reflect the things that each person would have enjoyed before moving in to a Care Home and we make sure they continue to enjoy them with new-found friends.

Why is exercise important for the older person?

Exercise is essential for maintaining good physical and mental health as we get older – especially for individual’s living in a Care Home environment. It is very important we conduct activities that will help strengthen our muscles and bones, and promote mobility and flexibility. Getting out and about or taking a walk around the local park, tucking into an al-fresco picnic, enjoying a gentle exercise class to music, such as Yoga or Zumba Gold, or pottering in the garden are some of the things we encourage our residents to do to help relieve stress, tension and any feelings of depression, and it helps to ensure a regular dose of vitamin D.

What therapies and treatments are available to residents?

Nellsar Care Homes recognise the mental health benefits of reminiscence activities, Pets as Therapy and mobile mini zoos. Our residents regularly enjoy petting furry animals and exotic creatures, or recalling fond memories in fun, group activities including The Daily Sparkle. We can also provide a variety of therapies and treatments (at an additional charge) to help pamper our residents including one-to-one shopping trips, hairdressing, massage, manicure, pedicure, chiropody and aromatherapy. So if you need your hair and nails done for a special occasion – consider it done!

Can new residents carry on with their own hobbies and interests?

We actively encourage our residents to carry on with any hobby they have previously enjoyed – whether that be knitting, watching Formula 1 racing, or reading a favourite book in peace and quiet. Always fancied trying your hand at fishing? Want to visit somewhere special? Our Care Home staff will happily facilitate any safe activity and we value your personal time and privacy. We genuinely enjoy making a special effort to put a smile on our residents’ faces.

Are leisure activities and entertainment varied?

Our Care Homes run a successful ’in-home’ activities programme with a wide variety of the old favourites, including arts and crafts exercises, baking and cooking, bowling, skittles, exercise and musical classes, cinema clubs, visiting musicians, singers and entertainers. Many of our Care Homes have their own Mini Bus and we make the most of these with visits to local landmarks and places of interest such as castles, farms and theatres.

Is a person’s independence encouraged and supported?

We purposefully encourage residents to remain as independent as possible, while always ensuring their safety comes first. Retaining a sense-of-self is imperative for our mental health, as is trying new activities and taking on new challenges within a controlled, safe environment. It is good for us to push the boundaries, all the while being supported by an excellent Care team. So if you’d like to bake a cake for the first time, or have a go at Karaoke, we are here to help you.

Do your Homes have their own sense of social life?

Our Care Homes are filled with many unique individuals, each with a rich lifetime of experience and history and tall tales to tell. All of our Homes run regular coffee mornings, afternoon teas, cinema clubs, seasonal parties, music shows including Opera, Country & Western, Rock & Roll, wartime sing-a-longs, and calendar event celebrations including New Year, Valentine’s Day, Easter, St Patrick’s Day, St George’s Day, Halloween, Fireworks and Christmas. Many of our Homes also have Summer Houses, Tea Rooms and Residents’ Bars for residents and their relatives to enjoy.

How does the Home get involved with the local community?

As a family-run company, Nellsar Care Homes like to see our residents’ families and friends getting involved with life within the Home. Seeing our loved ones on a regular basis is essential for our happiness – without it we can feel lonely. Our Homes also have a strong sense of local community involvement, and they boast links with local farms, libraries, churches, choirs, schools, coffee shops, pubs and garden centres. Residents regularly enjoy visits from local schools and choirs, as well as getting out for fresh air, a fish and chip supper or a cream tea at the local garden centre.

Do residents have access to the internet, computers or tablets?

Nellsar Care Homes certainly move with the times and we are ahead where technology is concerned. Many of our Care Homes have 100% WiFi coverage so residents can use computers or tablets for a spot of online shopping, general use or keep in touch with their loved ones over Skype, email and social media. We are also extremely proud to be able to offer the new service of ‘bespoke online memory boxes’ through our pioneering partner – Interactive Me. 

Bespoke Online Memory Boxes?

Nellsar constantly goes the extra mile to make sure that residents feel safe and secure and we empower our Care staff with in-depth knowledge about each resident so that all Care provided is tailored to the individual. We are very pleased to announce our exciting partnership with a pioneering company, Interactive Me, who provide bespoke online Memory Boxes for elderly people and people living with Dementia – helping to improve their relationships and reduce any feelings of isolation.

Interactive Me utilises new online technologies to develop each Memory Box for residents in our Care Homes, promoting better relationships between staff and the residents they support. Memory Boxes are put together with up to six categories, to contain historical photos; new photos from activities within the Home; voiceovers from loved ones; favourite music; films and TV shows. The Interactive Me system is accessed online and is best used on a tablet. This outstanding service is available for a small monthly subscription fee.

An Interactive Me Memory Box is not an off-the-shelf product but a person-centred tool which is aimed at improving and enriching the quality of life of the person it is built for. Interactive Me will spend time with each resident and their loved ones to build a complete profile and an increasingly stronger picture of who each person “is” and “was”, and what they enjoy. We regularly update the content so it remains fresh and relevant – a wonderful tool which they can access with the support of family, friends and staff members.

An Interactive Me Memory Box could make an ideal gift for a relative – click here to watch the new video.