Activities at South Chowdene Care Home
Our home is always full of life, and we can thank our wonderful Activities Coordinators for this. Dedication to creating a unique and interesting activities programme is what sets us apart from other homes. We always take into consideration that some people would prefer to pursue their own interests, which is why our team strive to incorporative activities that cater to a wide range of tastes and hobbies. Our trips out are always fun and exciting as well, and residents are guaranteed to return with stories to tell their loved ones!
Niki Powell
I arrange meaningful activities for all of our residents based on their likes and interests. I love sharing fun times with our residents, their families and with staff. I thoroughly enjoy chatting with residents about their hobbies/interests as well as reminiscing in small groups.
Our activities extend beyond the home with trips to places of interest, places residents have enjoyed throughout their lives eg. Seaside, parks, garden centers, as well as craft/ art workshops at libraries and general interest talks around the area.
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 South Chowdene Care Home
Barchie Goes Out And About
Over the last 6 months, the South Chowdene ‘Barchie bunny’ has been out and about joining residents on trips and staff on holidays and weekends away.
Residents are always keen to find out what Barchie has been up to over a weekend or when he has been ‘missing’ for a week or two. He sometimes sends a postcard to let us know how and what he is doing and is excellent and keeping us updated through facebook.
For residents who don’t access Facebook, pictures are printed off and shown round at breakfast time and then put up on the ‘notice’ wall so that everyone can see how he is doing.
Residents have also taken Barchie out on trips with them over the summer – he has visited Whitley Bay, Seaham and South Shields (we never did persuade him to go on any of the rides but he liked the train in the park).
We are hoping that Barchie will be joining us on the autumn/ winter trips to Fenwicks window, Christmas light shows and Christmas socials.
Memory Walks
At the beginning of October two South Chowdene staff members completed two different memory walks in the North East Area raising over £250 for dementia between them.
Tony completed 7 km and Bev skipped along her miles with family members including her baby grandaughter. Well done to both for raising money for a cause we work with every day.
We are hoping to get some residents along to next year’s walks – watch this space!
Latte Fun and Cake Competition
Staff and residents at South Chowdene Care Home in Low Fell held a charity coffee morning on Thursday 19th September to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support. South Chowdene Care Home’s coffee morning was a big success – they managed to raise £150.29 and, most importantly, everyone had a lot of fun doing it!
Autumn Fair with Alpaca Adventure
Staff, residents, relatives and the local community came together at South Chowdene Care Home to enjoy an Autumn Fair that was held in the home’s grounds which became full of animal mischief on Saturday 7th September when a group of alpacas came to visit the home.
South Chowdene Care Home hosted a variety of activities throughout the day, including raffle, tombola stall, home bake stall and excellent live entertainment but residents and visitors were pleasantly surprised to see their new furry friends roaming around their garden as North Star Alpacas paid a visit.
General Manager Katie Searle said: “Our residents have really enjoyed their unusual visitors today. We knew that having the farm here would be a bit of fun for residents and guests alike. We are always looking for new activities for the residents and today we have seen the seen the enjoyment and the therapeutic influence animals can have on people.”
Staff at South Chowdene Care Home made everyone feel welcome and were delighted to see different generations having fun together. Visitors enjoyed plenty of refreshments, prepared by the catering team, who were hard at work making sure that a great time was had by all.
Tour of Britain
Residents from South Chowdene showed their support to the hard working cyclists by lining the route and cheering them on through our home town. Staff and families took residents to join in the community atmosphere and excitement.
They enjoyed seeing the team cars coming through and escort motorcycles had the crowds well warmed up by the time the cyclists flashed through on their way to Kendal.
The residents then nipped back down the bank to South Chowdene to watch the rest of the stage on TV, which brought back many memories from residents' travel adventures.
Pride Weekend
Over the last month, South Chowdene Care Home has linked up with the Pride Media Centre in Newcastle to promote LGBT+ rights and acceptance within the care industry. Katie Searle, General Manager and Joanne Fleming, Registered Nurse, attended a sponsorship launch at the Media Centre.
The purpose on the visit was to find out more about the centre, the support that they offer and to form a collaboration in order to support LGBT members and residents, to make them feel valued and socially accepted.
Staff attended a talk and discussions around barriers faced by LGBT+ community and the fears, which could arise when moving into a care setting with a mark from the Pride Media Centre.
Residents made a rainbow banner and rainbow decorations in craft sessions promoting the discussion around the shift in attitudes over the years towards this subject.
On the Pride weekend, residents made rainbow cakes, which went down very well with visitors, residents and staff alike.
Upcoming events
May
May is the gateway of summer and we have lots of fun filled activities planned - all welcome.
Coffee Morning - last Tuesday of the month
We extend a warm invitation for families, friends and neighbours to join us at our monthly coffee morning, last Tuesday of the month from 10.30 am.
Could you be a Volunteer?
Do you have spare time? Could you make a difference to someone's day to day activities? We'd love to hear from you.
Take a break on us!
Calling all professionals - come and take a break on us! There may be a cake or two available...
