Residents at Tallington Lodge Care Home in Tallington near Stamford have been enjoying a month-long Staycation during July. Residents have had the opportunity to get involved with travel-based activities, reminiscing and international-themed days complete with special celebration menus.
“We want to bring a holiday feel to our care home.” Explained Manju Panankavil, Home Manager. “Few of us will be jetting off anywhere exotic this year, so we thought we’d bring some holiday vibes to our home.”
Families of residents were asked to get involved by sending in photos of their loved one’s favourite holiday destinations in the UK or abroad. Staff and residents enjoyed reminiscing about their favourite holiday memories and travels to a variety of locations. They enjoyed lots of fond memories of seaside holidays, road trips, caravanning, walking and cycling. Some people never owned a passport, but others travelled the world, everyone had some wonderful stories to share.
Residents at Tallington Lodge decided to go on a virtual road trip around Yorkshire. They started by making a road map to illustrate the route and even created a camper van for the journey.
Wellbeing Coordinator Chantal DeVries explains. “We started in York talking and reminiscing over our holidays there. As York is known as the most haunted city in England, we decided to include a ghost walk. We discussed all the famous ghost sightings there and even had sound effects and theatre. Our housekeepers came to help, so we had our very own Tally tea ghost, Jackie from our Front of House team, making an appearance too!”
“We are going to continue our virtual tour of Yorkshire over the next few weeks, our next stop is the Jorvik Viking museum. We have been making Viking helmets, and we are going to have a Viking camp out and meat feast with traditional Viking games. We then head off to Whitby for our final beach party.”
“We spoke to all the residents about their holidays and discussed their favourite trips. Several people had been to York and Whitby.” Said Chantal. “Everyone loved doing something different, we had lots of fun this week. Making all the props really helped to bring our activities alive we are very keen to continue our virtual road trip”.
The Staycation month has been a great talking point for residents and staff with reminiscing proven to be beneficial, especially for residents living with dementia. Talking about people’s life experiences helps build connections between residents and staff and is a great way for people to enjoy shared experiences. The initiative has sparked lots of great memories from looking at old photos together, whether with staff or during family visits to the care home. It has been a great way to get everyone involved in each person’s individual life history and get to know them better.
For more information about life at Tallington Lodge Care Home contact, Customer Relations Advisor Oliver Parker on 07540 412 871 or email oliver.parker@countrycourtcare.com.
