Activities at Milford House Care Home
The Activities Team at Milford House are dedicated to providing a range of stimulating activities for both groups and individuals, that promote both physical and mental wellbeing based upon resident's interests both past and present. As a member of the National Activity Providers Association (NAPA) the team are always striving to incorporate best practice into the array of activities on offer and to enhance their own skills through qualification with NAPA to NVQ Level 3 in Activities Provision. The team combine weekly activity favourites such as sherry mornings with special events, musical entertainments, slide shows, outings in our own mini-bus as well as interacting with local community groups such as Plain Arts Salisbury to showcase resident art and creativity and others who come into the home to interact with our residents. Milford House also benefits from a strong network of volunteers who support the Activity Team as they deliver their programme and who, along with friends and relatives, are always welcome to come and join in our sessions and outings.
Gale Louw
Gale joined the Milford team in 2019, initially as a carer but has gradually transferred over to the Activities Team where she is now the full time Coordinator. Gale has a passion to create a comprehensive and inclusive programme of vibrant events for residents, family
members and friends to enjoy and, along with the rest of team, ensure that each resident is able to participate in meaningful activities tailored to their likes and dislikes.
Originally from South Africa, when not at work Gale loves nothing more than exploring the UK, catching up with family and friends, being creative across a variety of disciplines and keeping her eyes out for great activities and events she can bring back to the home for
residents to enjoy.
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 Milford House Care Home
Bowled Over
Residents at Milford really enjoy their monthly sessions of active games with the team from Salisbury District Council, who bring in a range of equipment to get us all moving and feeling competitive.
Cakes Galore
This year, our summer party featured a fantastic cream tea that was prepared by our team of chefs, and the spread that they laid before us was truly mouth-watering. We couldn’t decide which was the best – the scones with clotted cream and jam, the chocolate strawberry cake, the Victoria sponge – the list goes on! It was a hard decision and many of us felt that we had to try more than one to come up with a definitive answer!
Thank you to the team who prepared it all – it was a fabulous afternoon, which was enjoyed by a great turn out of residents, families, visitors and staff.
Banding Together
We were delighted to welcome Dolly and the Dactiles to play for us at our recent summer party. Lead singer, Dolly (aka Karen), has been to Milford before and this time we had her backing group as well, which featured our own Head of Maintenance on the drums as an extra special treat!
They played a range of songs from the '50s to the present day on the outdoor stage, which had us tapping our feet and singing along on a gorgeous sunny afternoon.
Supporting Community Workers
Here at Milford, we work with a lot of agencies supporting people in the community, and one of these is Arriva, who provide transport to and from the local hospital.
Recently we had a visit from some of the team, who were assessing access to the home, and we all found time for a quick cup of tea and a chat. Knowing how busy the teams are, and that sometimes they really can’t stop for a well- earned break, we decided to send them off with thermal cups from Barchester, so that they can fill up and keep their chosen brew warm!
We are always happy for the emergency services to stop off and grab a quick cup of tea and a cake from our café, as our way of saying thank you for all that they do, and our Milford cakes are building quite a reputation as a result.
Sunflower Afternoon
Residents at Milford were delighted to spend the afternoon learning about the wonderful sunflower products produced by the Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust.
The range of creams and oils are produced and sold on behalf of the Trust and all profits are returned to the trust to be used for patient care. The products, developed by a consultant at the hospital, were initially used to help burn victims recover from their injuries, but they had such good results that they were further developed to allow them to be shared into the wider community.
We spent a wonderful afternoon learning all about the products and how they are made and, of course, sampling them – leaving us all with beautifully soft skin.
Thank you to the girls for sharing an afternoon with us.
Sandi Returns
We have regular monthly visits from ‘Alive!’, which we all look forward to enormously. We are never sure which presenter we are going to have – which adds a lovely element of surprise to the afternoon. Whoever arrives, we know that we will have a great afternoon, but it was good to see Sandi back this month, as we haven’t seen her in a while. Who will it be next month!?
