Care homes: life after bingo
Daytime TV and bingo are the cornerstones of care home activities, but people are starting to switch off and do something different. Robert Mair reports.
This article includes:
• About inspiritbuxton
• The importance of activities
• Isis Care and Retirement Centre: challenging expectations
About inspiritbuxton
Working as an activities co-ordinator can be a frustrating and thankless task. Ask Sheila Searle, who discovered just how difficult it can be when she worked at a care home in Buxton, Derbyshire. With no budget, poor pay and a chronic lack of resources, her job was a daily battle as she struggled to find new ways to challenge and stimulate her residents.
And after 18 months it became too much.
Disillusioned by the apathy displayed by the care home management towards her approach to activities, she left to start her own company, inspiritbuxton, which is an online resource for activity coordinators. It’s also a way for her to challenge existing ideas of what care home residents can do:
“In some care homes, there’s the attitude that residents can’t do things and people make your decisions for you,” she says. “I must have been like a maverick co-ordinator because I have the view that you don’t set boundaries for people.
“If someone wants to have a go, they might need help or encouragement. Or they might try it and think ‘sod this’. But you shouldn’t take away that initial impulse and I’ve seen that happen lots of times.”
The importance of activities
It’s this same excitement she is keen to instil in care home staff, who she feels are far too dismissive and judgemental about the abilities of care home residents:
“I want to do anything I can to stimulate people, or make them think differently about activities. For some people it really can be a matter of life and death.
“If you’re a resident and you have a worry or a problem, it’s good to get your mind on something and give yourself a sense of satisfaction to say ‘I did that’. It can make a huge difference to someone’s life – instead of just watching ‘Cash in the Attic’ day in day out.”
With this in mind, inspiritbuxton provides numerous hints and tips to break the monotony, and gives put-upon activities staff cost effective ways to entertain residents. From drawing competitions to ways to challenging the senses, it’s a useful website for professional care staff and home carers looking for new ways to help people in their care.
Isis Care and Retirement Centre: challenging expectations
Isis Care and Retirement Centre in Oxfordshire is one of a growing number of care homes to take activities seriously and activities co-ordinator Sharon Wheeler – who could also be labelled a maverick – has a passion that matches Sheila’s.
She has successfully persuaded her residents to try their hands at a number of different activities – including ice-skating. She’s now looking into the possibility of taking some of the more adventurous residents’ trampolining, where they are supported by elastic ropes.
“You have to have a very good relationship with the residents,” she says. “If they trust you, it can make doing the more adventurous things easier. For example, when we went ice-skating it was because ice-skating was on the TV and I said to the residents that they could do that. Some said they couldn’t, but I didn’t have to twist anybody’s arms to go.
“I had a lot of people interested and I don’t usually have any problems with my wild ideas.”
As well as challenging residents with outlandish activities, Sharon is also keen for people to do the things they enjoy. As a result, old favourites such as bingo are still very important in the weekly activities plan.
“Bingo is top of the residents’ list at my home and the important thing is they enjoy it and they want to do it.”