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
Dementia Awareness Week
Dementia Awareness Week was a busy time for us at Kernow House; as well as our usual weekly activities, we had an entertainer in who sang old Top of the Pops songs for us.
One day was National Museum Day, which gave us an opportunity to take a trip down memory lane. Friday was our fundraising day, so we hosted a coffee morning, a pick ‘n’ mix cake sale and a raffle, and we managed to raise £131 for the Alzheimer’s Society.
Thank you to loved ones, staff members and suppliers, who very kindly donated raffle prizes; and thank you to all of those who bought tickets. Finally, a big thank you to the staff members who made delicious cakes for us to sell, but best of all, for us to eat!
Staff dressed up in colourful clothes to symbolise that we are all individuals and we held hands to unite against dementia, which is this year’s message.
National Museum Day
Our local museum, the Lawrence House Museum, very kindly lent us some of their museum items so that we could use them on National Museum Day. We borrowed household items, including a very badly smelling bar of carbolic soap, hats and underwear.
We showed off the various things on loan and spent time reminiscing. Charles Causley’s tin soldiers were among the items, as well as several hats from different professions - and all these things brought back many memories and stories to be told. We were fortunate enough to be able to keep everything for a month, so we will continue to use them and chat about times gone by.
Volunteer Recognition Day
We have a number of volunteers who give up their time to enrich ours at Kernow House, so we marked Volunteer Recognition Day by thanking them and presenting those present with a small gift and card to show our appreciation. Sheila and Richard Burt form the duo Hymns’n’things, and they regularly share their time and talent with us when they entertain us with music, singing and storytelling. Peter Parsons very kindly organises a group of eleven volunteers who take turns visiting every Thursday afternoon. Irene frequently takes part in these activities and enjoys them very much, as all of us do. A big thank you to all our volunteers!
Easter at Kernow
During Nutrition Week, we decided to make simnel cakes for Easter. We did this, decorated the cakes and entered them into Barchester’s Easter Cake Competition. We made little chicks out of egg shells left over from the fried eggs at breakfast time.
Jackie won the plant-growing competition with the longest stem and she was presented with a huge Easter egg. We ate hot cross buns on Good Friday and had a nice roast dinner on Easter Sunday, followed by our simnel cakes later in the afternoon.
National Scrabble Day
We marked National Scrabble Day with a game of - you guessed it - Scrabble at Kernow House and, although we tried to play by the rules, a little cheating helped us on our way. We spelled a lot of words and thought of sayings we could use to make Scrabble craft. 'Happiness is cake' was a fan favourite - and it's difficult to disagree!
Mandy's 50th Birthday
Mandy celebrated her 50th birthday in style. She is a huge Elvis fan and has been to Graceland, so for her special birthday, Mandy’s family hired an Elvis impersonator. She enjoyed the music and party and invited other residents to join in. Lots of loved ones were there to celebrate, but the day was extra special because Mandy’s two week old grandson had arrived in time to celebrate Granny’s big day. What a fantastic way to make memories!
