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.
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 Kernow House Care Home
Pampering
Every Tuesday and Thursday morning we have pop-up cafe on the concourse. Residents and friends often come together to share social time and have a cup of tea or coffee. Our hairdresser is working in the salon on those two mornings and as well as doing hairdressing, she also does beauty treatments. It’s wonderful to be pampered and enjoy some me time.
International Flower Day
International Flower Day was so lovely with residents making flower decorations using the pots we made previously. We had been given some air-drying clay, which we used to make our own flower pots. Then we decorated. There were roses, carnations, chrysanthemums, baby’s breath and green leaves we cut from the garden. After the decorations were made, we took them around the home and each unit chose a flower display to brighten up their space.
Entertainers
We had a wonderful afternoon with lots of singing and dancing on the dancefloor as well as dancing whilst sitting in chairs when the Fowlers came to entertain us. Staff joined in and had a little boogie too. It was lovely to be amongst friends and share the enjoyment of listening to live music. When we have entertainers or special events, residents gather together from all units if they wish to take part. It’s a great way of making friends and enjoy socialising.
Donkey visit
What a great afternoon we had when Bucksfizz and Strawberry Mimosa – two miniature donkeys – came to visit from Pennywort Mill Miniature Donkeys. Resident ambassador Richard was on hand to meet and greet Hilary and Chris Hogg when they arrived with Fizz and Mimi, as the cute donkeys are affectionately known. They dressed up and were ready to meet residents, visitors, staff and little children, who we had invited too. There was a specially made stable to remind us why we have donkeys at Christmas. It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas when we are surrounded by animals and children.
Nativity
Presenting Kernow Players and their performance of the Nativity. We had such a lot of fun doing our version of the nativity story, which was an interactive performance with residents, staff and students joining in. The story was beautifully narrated by a member of staff and the singing was led by a resident, who has a trained singing voice. Everyone joined in doing parts of their choice, so we had several angels and shepherds. It reminded us of going to nativity plays when we were young ourselves or going with our own children. A relative even suggested our performance reminded her of going to pantomimes. It was a lot of festive fun.
Taking part in community events
We have organised lots of Christmassy events for December and have listened carefully to what residents would like to do. One very popular event is taking part in the Festival of Christmas Trees and Cribs in St Marys Church. We made our own decorations using things we found outdoors and after setting up our tree with almost 80 other trees and displays, we have visited the church on numerous occasions. There is a fantastic atmosphere and it’s lovely to take part in a festive community event.
