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
Barchester Care Awards - We're Winners!
Michael Beresford, Head of Learning Programmes, presented the Care Practitioner of the Year award for 2023. This award celebrates the commitment, not only to the residents or patients, but also to junior members of staff to providing care and support. And the winner is Jo Vine from Kernow House Care Home. Congratulations!
Alzheimer’s Week
It is Alzheimer’s Week and we have been busy making a collage using a craft kit from Creative Mojo. It is an autumn view from a window and we have spent many sessions on Petherwin, which is our memory lane community, doing crafts with people who enjoy being creative. We have chosen colours and textures and have had a good chance to reminisce. Reimagining Dementia are focussing on doing something creative for Alzheimer’s Week and have a project called Taking it to the Streets. We have submitted our project and collage to the project but only virtually, of course. The real collage is hanging in the small lounge, where we can continue to enjoy it.
Live music
We had a great afternoon on Petherwin with Martin and Sarah Fowler, who came to sing and play guitar for us. It was the first time Martin and Sarah came to us and they even brought their little dog, Mya. We had such a good time with lots of singing and dancing so we have asked Martin and Sarah if they will come back and they have agreed to do that. It is important that we continue to offer new experiences and one way of doing this is by inviting new entertainers.
Bailey the therapy dog
Bailey, the therapy dog and Grant, his owner, have just started coming to us as volunteers from Therapy Dog Nationwide. Bailey and Grant will visit us twice a week and take it in turns to see the people, who enjoy some canine company and a good chat with Grant. Bailey comes for one hour at a time and he even does bedroom visits for those people, who need to stay in bed. We are already seeing the benefits of Bailey’s visits.
Relaxing
We had a wonderfully peaceful afternoon listening to some well know tunes and all felt very relaxed after spending time with Luna the Harp. Originally, we had the idea of finding a musician, who could play soothing music when it was National Relaxation Day. The answer is harp music and all residents, who listened to Luna said they enjoyed it and would like Alison to come to us. We also have regular Namaste sessions on all units where we sit peacefully in a darkened room, watching sensory lights, listening to calming music and watching sensory images. Louise, our hairdresser, gives residents a hand massage and it’s all very enjoyable.
Mural
We have a fantastic mural brightening up the outdoor space on St Pirans 8. A member of staff suggested we did something to brighten up the little courtyard area and we talked to residents. We suggested a mural and residents thought it was a good idea and made suggestions for what they would like to see, so we commissioned Jordan Lauder from The Mural Company. The mural measures 2 x 5 metres and is very impressive. It was paid for using money from the Residents Fund. This is where money donated to us for residents use is and we were able to access some, as residents said they would like a brighter environment.
