Activities & Events
Activities
Whilst Hartley Park Care Home runs a weekly programme of activities and events for our residents to join in with (should they wish), ours is not an institutional culture of "one size fits all". Although our activities team coordinate events, programmes and resources, it is our whole staff team responsibility to ensure that our residents are engaged daily. All staff from direct care workers through to management are responsible for the provision of fun and occupation for our residents that will give meaning and structure to their life.
Life Stories
Our starting point is the residents life story which helps us to learn and understand the individual person beyond the Dementia. We want to get to know our residents as people with their own personalities and pasts, get to know their likes and dislikes, their daily routines, their community, and understand their values and beliefs.
Whilst we value the family and friends input into this life story, it is important also to listen to the story that the resident wants to tell as demonstrated in the case study box.
Case Study
Mrs B worked for 30 years as a personal assistant in a Lawyers Firm; Mrs B also spent two months as a young mother working in Woolworths as a “Shop Girl” on the pick n mix counter. When asked about her work Mrs B will recount fond memories and the good times she had in Woolworths “best job I ever had”. This is the story that Mrs B wants to tell, an aspect of her life that was important to her and clearly is a source of happiness and comfort.
The most important skill that all our staff have is the ability to communicate. All of our staff are encouraged to pay careful attention to what our residents are communicating either verbally or non-verbally throughout their time with us. The residents lead the way, they tell us what they want us to know. Listening and understanding a resident with Dementia is a key part of treating that individual with the dignity they deserve.
So you may see our residents pushing the tea trolleys, laying the tables, hanging out the clothes, painting the walls, sweeping up leaves, throwing the ball for the dog, washing up or making a batch of scones. This may not be the expected activities of a Care Home i.e. a daily sing song (although these do also happen), however this is an activity that they have chosen and made their own. You will find that they are often absorbed in deep concentration or animated with pleasure; that they can lose themselves in it; that they can express themselves through it, and initiate engagement of their own accord. This is what an activity truly means at Hartley Park Care Home.