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.
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
In touch with animals
We have a whole-home approach to making sure life enrichment is the best it can be for people who live at Kernow House. When housekeeper Kerry heard residents talking about missing their pets, she organised a trip to Trethorne Leisure Park for a small group to take part in In Touch With Animals.
We saw ducks and their ducklings, and we spent an hour sitting quietly with Guinea pigs and rabbits, stroking them, talking gently to them and listening to their contented noises. It was a fantastic experience, very peaceful and therapeutic.
VE80 Celebrations!
Our VE80 Tea Party was a great success. We had lots of flags, napkins and tablecloths very kindly donated to us by Launceton Town Council. Staff dressed up in red, white and blue and head chef Rachel made scones and chocolate cake for our tea party using original wartime recipes.
The scones with margarine were very nice, but the chocolate cake with very little sugar was not quite as delicious. Music from the era was provided by a D-Day Dolly, and we joined in singing, dancing and waving our flags. Some residents have memories from the war.
One, who is 101 years old, has often told visiting school children how important it is to share the food we have, and he enjoyed his afternoon tea. Another resident remembers being bombed out and losing her precious bike although, thankfully, no loss of life on that occasion.
Street Party
Some residents and staff took part in Launceston Town Council VE 80 Day Picnic in the Square.
We had great fun enjoying our picnic, meeting people, singing and dancing to the music provided by Launceton Town Band. Resident ambassador Richard thanked our Town Crier Rob Tremain for a lovely afternoon spent in good company.
Some residents have never been to a street party before, and they were thrilled to be able to take part in this community event.
Real Party Atmosphere!
There was a real party atmosphere when The Hurdy Gurdies came to play. There are several musicians amongst the people who live at Kernow House and some have asked for a band to come. We asked The Hurdy Gurdies, and they took up the challenge of performing in a smaller space than their usual gigs. It was fantastic. They played 60’s music and the tunes were very familiar to us.
There was singing and dancing and as Kernow Keg was there, the drinks were flowing and the spirit was just as it should be, when you go out to a live music gig. Huge thank you to all the staff who joined in the party and made this a fantastic event.
Whose Truth Travels
At Kernow House we have been given an exciting opportunity to take part in the ‘Whose Truth Travels’ art project to celebrate Global Intergenerational Week, 24.-30.04.2025. This opportunity came about through working with the Only Connect network.
Shirley Chisholm famously said ‘If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair’. The intention of the project is to get past some of the barriers that frequently divide communities. It seeks to bring diverse groups together to openly share their perceptions of themselves and celebrate each other within local space and environments. We have made our folding chair and have photographed it. The home of this project is New York and the image of our chair will be displayed in a digital flip book along with a 100-word piece that describes our organisation and the values that drive our intergenerational values:
‘Kernow House is a home for people with Complex Care Needs. We have close links with St Catherine’s Primary School and Nicky Brice Dance School.
The benefit to residents’ wellbeing from spending time with children cannot be underestimated. It is shown to enhance mood, encourage learning, and can improve movement and dexterity. We share stories, eat ice cream, reminisce with museum items and dance together. A resident said: ‘Our chair is old and has seen life. It has lots of patina and memories. We have added new ones and used natural colours to symbolise youth. The scrolls represent human aspirations.’
Karaoke!
Elly, from Vocal Footprint, came to sing for us. This time we did karaoke and lots of people joined in with the singing and dancing.
Kernow Keg was there too, so we could have a little drink and enjoy that Friday feeling. It was party time and good fun. We always try to do something new, and we will do karaoke on our own as it was so enjoyable.
