Activities at Westergate House Care Home
Our activities team are great at building the activities programme around the likes and interests of the people we care for. Ensuring that our social events offer fun and adventure is part of the ethos of our home; it’s important that those we support can enjoy an active and social lifestyle. Of course, there will always be those who prefer peace and quiet, and in these instances, a cup of tea and a chat are always welcomed.
Lee Austin
My name is Lee and I am the Head of Lifestyle here at Westergate House.
I support our residents daily to do the things they enjoy and it is extremely important to me that we are offering a premium and person centred service to each resident. I support our residents on a daily basis by providing meaningful and quality activities either in groups or on a 1:1 basis, to help encourage and build confidence while creating an enjoyable environment for everyone. Westergate House is the home of our residents, we as staff are working in it, so it is extremely important to me that we are respectful of that, while offering a premium and person centred service to each and every resident.
I am a trained actor and professional vocalist and not shy in making a fool of myself. If I do that every day to put a smile on our residents faces then I’m happy I have played my part, along with the rest of the amazing team, to brightening their day. If you hear someone singing along the corridor or see them dancing in the lounges, it will probably be me.
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 Westergate House Care Home
Armchair Travel
Residents & staff enjoyed a fun-filled day for our latest ‘Armchair Travel Day’, this time to Germany as part of our Octoberfest Season.
The morning was spent learning about the culture, history and cuisine of Germany with some fun quizzes and fancy dress.
Head Chef, Eric, served a delicious German hunters stew with black forest gateaux for desert. There were more quizzes in the afternoon, followed by wine & beer tasting, accompanied by a selection of German cheeses.
Wear it Pink
Everyone enjoyed a fun day helping raise awareness for Breast Cancer UK. Staff and residents dressed in pink, even down to medical grade pink PPE for the day. A raffle raised a fantastic £100 towards this great cause. Well done everyone!
Macmillan Coffee Morning
Westergate house held its own Macmillan Coffee morning this year and still found a way to do things differently involving our local community.
Nina and her team from the Barnham & Eastergate Parish Council delivered home-made cakes for our residents who enjoyed a choice of chocolate, walnut and a traditional Victoria sandwich with lattes and cappuccinos from our newly installed coffee machine. Westergate continue to sponsor Nina’s Friendly Coffee Morning, delivering to people in the local community whilst the coffee mornings can’t be held at Eastergate Village Hall.
Residents and staff raised over £70.00 and joined in the fun this year by having their photos taken with the Macmillan gingerbread man.
Julie also held her own Macmillan coffee morning in our Memory Lane community, which supports our residents living with dementia. She spent the morning with our residents making decorations for the dining area by adding balloons and bunting.
Harvest Festival Hampers
Westergate created hampers for local charities in recognition of Harvest Festival.
Donations arrived thick and fast from our residents relatives and the staff team. The residents helped to sort and decorate the hampers, which formed part of our Harvest Festival display this year.
In addition to the food hampers, Westergate House will also be donating warm winter wear. Wendy and the other residents gladly helped to sort out the vast amount of donations received and helped the activities team make up the hampers.
The centre piece of our Harvest Festival display consisted of an original watercolour, painted by Dennis, one of our residents, and a family friend made our stunning bread wheatsheaf loaf.
Everyone helped decorate the table display and our residents in Memory Lane made salt dough leaves and corn dolls. The display was finished off with harvest hares and butterflies and, in the middle, was our Harvest Tree of Life. We held our traditional Harvest Festival Service in front of the wonderful display.
Winnie Turns 100
Celebrations have been in full swing at Westergate, as one of its residents reached her centenary in style.
Winnie was born in Belgium before coming to England, age seven, and, in later years, joined the army, where she met her husband, and they had many happy years together.
Winnie is now enjoying a new chapter of her life here at Westergate House. Winnie was joined by staff and other residents as she received a telegram from the Queen in recognition of her landmark birthday.
Family member’s Skyped in on the day to wish her happy birthday. As part of her special day, we had a 1920s quiz, some of which was spoken in French, as Winnie is fluent in the language. This was followed by a traditional Belgium lunch of mussels and chips and an afternoon vintage tea party with a champagne reception. Guests enjoyed a lovely cream and strawberry 100th birthday cake, which was made by the home’s Head Chef.
Winnie received over 60 cards from family, friends and staff, and even had a request read out on the local radio.
Celebrating National Fish and Chip Day
Olive and the Residents at Westergate House celebrated National Fish and Chip Day by enjoying a traditional fish and chip lunch this was
followed by quiz time and reminiscence afternoon which brought back childhood memories of family holidays by the sea with fish and chips wrapped in newspaper.
Just the smell of Fish and Chips being served made everyone’s mouth water.
