Community And Family Involvement

The consistent support and social interaction of friends and family is essential to the continued enjoyment of life and we advocate this strongly. On admission residents, their family and friends are encouraged to participate in the development of their individualised Care Plan as appropriate and their input is greatly valued. To this end you are welcome to download and submit our “Family Questionnaire“and our “Keeping Active Plan” to help us understand our residents past and present such as what excites and interests them to how they like their tea in the morning. The smallest piece of information can be invaluable for us to ensure the daily enjoyment of each resident.

Keeping Active

Our care homes allow residents to enjoy their independence, friendships and interests when the burden of managing their own household becomes too demanding. We support our residents live in an environment where age need not be a barrier to leading a fulfilling lifestyle. Promoting activities and purpose is a cornerstone of our holistic approach of care.

Life in our care home is simply a supported continuum of life and indeed we aim to offer the opportunity to gain new experiences and learn new things.

Our homes each have an Activities Champion who is on hand to support and promote our “Activities Schedule“while supporting residents in learning new hobbies and maintaining existing ones.

An activities programme is developed by our Activities Champion who works in conjunction with the “Keeping Active Plan“, the manger, resident, their family and the occupational needs of every individual. See our sample “Activities Schedule

Our activities are not limited to the interior of the building. We look to open up our wonderful garden spaces as much as possible by promoting outdoor activities. From lawn games to raised beds for gardening, including the growing of vegetables, herbs and salads which are then all used by our cooks for the freshest of ingredients!

We promote individual and small group outings to local churches, high streets, libraries and parks as often as possible.

We aim to support an individual in maintaining their purpose through being actively involved in their own care, their community, through pursuing their past and present interests and engaging in indoor and outdoor activities. We also believe in Activity Based Care.

so our residents enjoy active living. We promote our residents to participate as fully as possible in whatever daily living activities they are still able to do for themselves. Our care team aims to help people with the things they cannot do, but does not take away their independence. Everyone can participate in some aspect on their own and be more fully engaged in life.

Maintaining purpose promotes a positive outlook on life. Residents then tend to want to engage more and more which then supports their general well-being, emotional cognitively and occupational needs and ultimately their quality of life.

We are always looking for new activities and in that respect Ventry Residential Care is proud to welcome The Daily Sparkle into our activities schedule.

The Daily Sparkle is a daily reminiscence newspaper for elderly residents and is proving to be a great hit within our homes. It’s a daily ‘newspaper’ containing short articles that prompt reminiscence and discussion, and stimulate conversation between residents and visitors.

The newspaper is presented in large clear print with short varied historical articles covering the current date at pervious point in modern history. It can be read by individuals as well as used as the basis for group discussion. It is accompanied by Carers’ Notes, to help our care team to be well-informed about the background to the articles. They also include suggested questions to prompt free-flowing discussion. The articles and the way they are written stimulate reminiscence and conversation based on all five senses, plus movement. For example, an article about food rationing or war-time recipes would include reference to the taste, texture and smell of the food; items about 1950s fashion would include questions about what the fabrics felt like to touch or to wear.

Its success boils down to its wider appeal. It stimulates those with dementia, care team members learn about historical events and title tattle, and our other residents enjoy reminiscing about the past. The potency of historical stimuli is extremely beneficial to our residents who live with or without dementia.

The Daily Sparkle was the concept of a Psychotherapist with extensive experience designing and delivering activities for older people in residential care.