5 Ways to enrich the lives of Care Home residents

Providing great care isn’t only about tending to a user’s physical needs, but also making sure that their lives are full and interesting, and not only existing — and this is especially important for long-term residential care.

So what can care providers do to enrich the lives of residents in their care, to make life a little more interesting? The novelty of something new can make for a welcome change to the day-to-day routine of everyday life, so here are 5 suggestions for you to consider.

Animal Therapy

A new idea which is spreading in popularity and has already been successfully used by some care homes in animal therapy, giving care users a chance to meet all sorts of creatures first-hand. From miniature ponies to bearded dragons, dogs to owls, animal visits are a way to bring in something new and mentally stimulating from the outside world, and a chance to interact with nature which can be difficult for some care users.

Art and Crafts

From traditional ideas like painting or drawing to something a little more up-to-date and pumpkin carving for Halloween, helping care residents to exercise their creative sides is a great activity that can be undertaken almost anywhere.

Dance Classes

Helping Care Users to stay active is also a great way to improve their quality of life and provide entertainment at the same time. Dance classes give an outlet for positive energy, bring happiness, help with sleeping, and give a higher quality of life in general.

Quizzes and games

Giving your residents a mixture of board games and quizzes to take part in is another excellent way of providing mental stimulation. Let your imagination run with these, perhaps you could include a blind-tasting quiz, a listen-along music quiz, or something similar?

Cinema experiences

Watching films and TV is a common enough activity among care residents, but sometimes taking the extra effort to make it an occasion can help things feel special. Why not prepare some treats, like popcorn, and let residents vote, or take turns selecting movies?

Of course, providing ideas for entertainment is really something that can only be tackled once the key Care objectives have been met for every Care user, and that can only be done effectively if your team is fully staffed. With an ongoing shortage of Care workers, this is increasingly difficult to achieve.

That’s why Care Hires was created — to link Care Providers to staffing agencies with a powerful portal that can help identify and fill any gaps in your shift rotas, getting you to 100% shift fulfilment while reducing the time you need to spend on administration so you can focus on delivering great care to the people that need it.