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.

Enriching life
Watch our video on life enrichment in our homes.

Bea Porup

Activities Coordinator

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

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Storytelling

We have a varied program of activities and one is storytelling. For some people, being able to read a book is difficult so listening to a good story being told is very enjoyable. We had a great afternoon in the company of storytellers Susan Samm and Alan Woolard. 

They took it in turns to tell us fantastic stories and listening and watching was very interesting. One story was about the creation of dragon flies and the following day, we actually had a huge dragonfly inside the home. Maybe it had heard the story too.

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Get Barchester Moving

We have taken part in Get Barchester Moving, which is a week-long event to promote the Barchester Foundation Charity. The Foundation helps older people and those living with disabilities stay connected to their local communities. 

We started the week with a visit to Made Well CIC, who received a grant from the Foundation to build an outdoor gym. A group of us visited and had fun using the gym equipment. Being able to make community links and working together is great and when you can get fit in the process, it’s even better.

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Baking together

On National Biscuit Day we made some biscuits with the Kernow Kooks. We were just in time for afternoon tea and everyone had a choice between the homemade biscuits and biscuits we had bought, which are all-time favourites for some. Residents have told us that some like to cook and bake, as they have always done, so we sometimes do a little cooking together. 

It is possible to make a biscuit soft by gently pouring dissolved instant food and beverage thickener over the biscuits. That way, people who have a soft or puréed diet can have a biscuit too. 

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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.

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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. 

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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.