Activities at Waterside Court Care Home

One of the activities that residents enjoy at Waterside Court is having a good natter with our "Throw and Tell" memory ball. Residents pass the ball to each other and are given conversation prompts, such as “favourite biscuits”, “where I grew up”, “best childhood memory” and much more.

This simple but effective resource is a great way to encourage conversations between residents and lead reminiscence discussions. It’s also been a fun way for residents and staff to get to know each other a bit more. The “Throw and Tell” ball has another benefit of helping new residents to “break the ice” when they first move in, as the activity helps them get to know others quickly and easily, whilst also having fun.

There were smiles all round at Waterside Court as residents enjoyed an outdoor cinema experience and afternoon tea with their loved ones.

Just like the rest of the country, Government guidelines for care homes are starting to relax and up to 30 people can now come together again safely in outdoor spaces.

Roxana Moldovan, General Manager at Waterside Court commented: “It is great to be able to open up our gardens again and have family members join residents for activities. We have really missed being able to welcome them into our home during lockdown, although we’ve been facilitating lots of individual, booked family visits.  It’s lovely to be able to host events in the garden again now that lockdown is easing and the weather is getting warmer.”

In addition to afternoon tea, families and residents were treated to some cinema-themed snacks, which included a selection of individually wrapped chocolates, an array of soft drinks and, of course, popcorn!

We look forward to embracing the summer weather and can't wait to host more outdoor events for both residents and their families.

Residents and staff at Waterside Court were delighted to welcome Live Entertainers back into the home. Fiona Harrisson, a soprano musician who specialises in music from the 1880s to the 1970s, was welcomed into Waterside Court for a fantastic afternoon of live entertainment.

Activity Coordinator, May Kidner, said: “I reached out to Fiona as soon as the guidelines changed to say that live entertainers were allowed back into care homes. Fiona put on a wonderful performance that had residents dancing and singing along. She also wears costumes as part of her act, which the residents really loved to see. We now have live entertainment booked in right through till Christmas and hopefully, in the near future, we can start inviting family members along as well."

We had a delightful lunch, specially prepared by our Head Chef, to celebrate National Fish and Chip Day. Chef whipped up some lovely flavoured batters for residents to try, along with some home-made tartare sauce and an option of mushy peas or regular peas, with mint flavouring.

General Manager, Roxana Moldovan, said: “It wasn’t just the residents that were excited when we found out there was a National Fish & Chip Day, the eyes of all our staff lit up too – fish & chips are such an iconic dish, everyone loves them and it’s even better when there is a good excuse to eat them!”

Our varied life enrichment programme keeps residents active, and provides a daily choice of engaging physical, mental and spiritual activities tailored to residents’ interests and abilities.

We had a great turnout for Waterside Court’s Residents Meeting this month. These meetings are held once a month and enable residents to give feedback around what activities they loved, what they would like to see more of and also to share any ideas on new activities they would like to try.

Activity Coordinator, May Kidner, said: “Residents Meetings are a fantastic example of how residents are at the heart of all we do. Person-centred care is the foundation of what we deliver here at Waterside Court, and the residents meetings are a prime opportunity for residents to actively input into their Life Enrichment programme. It’s always lovely to see how active and engaged they are in these meetings as it allows us to truly personalise the activities to their wants and needs.”

Waterside Court is getting ready to launch its very own Mobile Library! Thanks to the kind and plentiful donations from the community, we will be offering the option for residents to borrow books from a mobile trolley. For added authenticity, we will even be introducing a "checking in" and "checking out" system.

Residents and staff thoroughly enjoyed perusing the different books and sorting them into genres. We have a lot of avid readers in the home so our Mobile Library will be a lovely way to encourage residents to continue reading. The activity of sorting through the books was also an incredible opportunity to engage residents' social skills and encourage conversations around favourite books, authors, genres and much more.