NorseCare residents enjoy a little help from their friends at Comic Relief
Residents at our homes have benefited from a £20,000 grant from Comic Relief’s Health and Wellbeing for Stronger Communities Fund. The grant has been used to develop the skills and confidence of staff in residential care homes, supporting residents to take part in person-centered activities and exercise, having fun, keeping healthy and active and playing a valuable part in the life of their community.
Staff were trained by Oomph! Wellness, a specialist activities and wellbeing provider, who provided sessions at the homes focusing on ensuring people are happy and engaged in purposeful activity that they enjoy. Lots of new and different activities take place, including seated football and badminton, yoga, art, pottery and drawing classes. Residents also enjoy exercise classes 3 times a week and staff have developed ‘Life stories’ to really get to know residents better.
One of the most vibrant developments is that residents’ choirs have been formed in the homes. Music therapy is known to bring huge stimulation and joy to people, especially those living with dementia. The residents’ choirs come together to sing at least twice a week as part of the wide ranging activities programmes in the homes.
The Comic Relief grant and Oomph’s sessions have boosted wellbeing, raised spirits and brought fun, friendship and laughter to over 150 residents and nearly 200 NorseCare staff have been trained. The results have seen improved engagement, wellbeing and relationships as well as a lot of excitement and fun for all those taking part in the activities, with us seeing a 68% increase in physical activity for residents. There has been an 85% increase in social interaction and 40% of residents are spending more time engaged with their local community.
Kate Grange, NorseCare’s Dementia Care Lead explained: “We already had good activity plans in our homes, but this Comic Relief grant and Oomph’s help has enabled us to develop some new and different ideas. We know that, especially for people living with dementia, music is a very powerful aid for us to use, so having the choirs in our homes is a really lovely way of supporting our residents as well as having a lot of fun together.”
A video of residents celebrating the Comic Relief grant and enjoying themselves can be seen at: https://youtu.be/8383DPp_gK0