You're in charge of arranging activities for residents in a care home. What are you going to plan? Unusual ideas welcomed

[AlpacaAPicnic]

This is a private retirement village with a very healthy budget for activities. They do all the usual things you might imagine - flower arranging, crafting, baking, rambling for those who are able, various talks arranged and various evening dos

But what can I suggest that's outside the box? They're very good at having some excellent ideas and have recently had therapy penguins (yes really), Caribbean evenings, barbershop quartets etc

It's my new role and I wondered if you could suggest something that might work. Of course I've got my own ideas but wondered if there was anything you'd like an older relative to experience

A mix of independent folk, those with dementia and those with care needs. We can do individual activities and tailor them to all residents

I work in and out of care homes and I'd say less Vera Lynn and more age appropriate music. Nowadays many of the residents weren't even born in WW2.

The music in most care homes hasn't changed since I started working in the area 20 years ago.

You can also get murder mystery kits on places like Amazon for about £20, you get a dossier of documents and you work through it to solve the crime. They are great fun and take a couple of hours to complete, suitable for groups of 4-6

Work out what era they are mainly all from, buy some coins from that time and set up a sweet shop where they use the old money. Try and get an old till with the big buttons, and proper little glass jars with the little scoops, don't forget the little paper bags or paper cones for them to put their sweets in.

I saw this on Facebook and immediately thought of suggesting it.

What about the kind of acts you get in working mens clubs, possibly a comedian and cover/ tribute act?

Tech classes: basics of mobile phones, tablets etc or more advanced if they're all all ready doing that. Even xbox/PlayStation basics of common games so they can connect with their grand kids and play them online or play themselves. Vr?

Mixology/ cocktails? You could possibly have a special each week.

Can you get them competing in anything? There was a film on netflix (set in America) with Diane Keaton in (I think it's called Poms- worth a watch) where she starts a cheerleading troupe and takes them to a competition.

If you have a lake- fishing if it isn't already done.

All sorts of dancing with teachers or professionals- if you have a local ballroom school nearby is you could have a proper strictly night.

What a fantastic job you've got.

Life drawing art classes

Music lessons - piano, flute, whatever

Gardening club- vegetable patch etc

Plan ahead for next summer and have a friends and family festival in the garden - tents, wristbands, music, food stands etc

Outdoor cinema night

I’ve always thought on maternity a massive gap for a baby group/ session within a residential home as I had a lot of free time and sure some of the residents would love to see little ones singing nursery rhymes etc!

My friend dies a roaring trade at nursing homes with a steel drum playing all sorts of music. It helps that she’s lovely and bubbly too.

I haven’t read the whole thread but I think it’s important to remember that most nursing home residents will have been young in the sixties, so some sixties music, Beatles, Motown etc might go down well.

I'm partly thinking what we've organised at work, because it sounds like a lot of them are quite active:

Sailing weekend
Snorkeling/underwater hockey taster session in the pool
Pétanque
Yodelling workshop (I have some great blackmail material of my bosses!)
Virtual formula 1 racing
Improv theatre workshop
Cocktail classes
Archery
Padel workshop (easier for older people than tennis)

Wine, cheese and Cluedo night?
Massages, maybe book a therapist to come in and give neck and shoulder massages?
See if a local school would come along and do horse/pony rides for those physically able?
Jewellery making?
Kite making?
Learn a language?
Film club?
Gaming night?
Drama club?

Christ I want to live there. How do I sign up?

There are strength training courses that have been done on NH residents that show amazing increases in strength and other benefits even in those in their 80's.

Anything to keep them moving / tai chi as above

It's a retirement village though, not a dementia home - I'm presuming some are completely cognitively intact?

What about creative writing/poetry writing course. Or courses that study and talk about a few poems each week?
Book club?

Leagues of competitions for eg whist or bridge

Learning new skills eg sodoku

Is there a local community centre with kids groups? my local one has a scheme in the holiday clubs where some kids visit a care home and chat to the residents, - my children like to go as they get biscuits - and make cards or crafts together

Get those sticky hands toys, super cheap online. All players sit round a table. Put a coin in the middle. Players try to get the coin by holding onto one end of the sticky hands, and throwing the other end at the coin it to drag it towards them.

Wowsers, I need to move in, it sounds fantastic.

At the WI we used to do various things that might work:

Skills swap nights - so someone who can crochet might do some teaching, someone who likes doing hair or nails shows people how to get good results, beading, decorating cakes, making cards. Really nice because we used to see what an amazing range of skills our members have.

Making bug hotels for around the grounds might work and was something we did to take home.

Had a talk about bees which was really interesting. I think another one locally had some people in with a couple of birds of prey and a talk about them.

I definitely like the idea of themed months.

Local to me there's also a private library which does term long classes - ukulele, latin, french, Spanish, history, philosophy, crafts - you name it, they run it. They charge a fee of something like £70 a term for 10x 2 hour sessions so it's great value.

Could you put on day trips as well - they also do this?

University of the third age might also be worth a look for ideas.

Set up a choir for Christmas so the residents can sing to the other residents do old time songs and Christmas songs. Do mini veg/herb garden indoors. Do a silent disco with music residents love. Do a interactive movie night like Sound of music/ Grease/ Oliver get words for songs things to shake, dress up etc.

I will add African marimba and mbira to drumming and gamelan. Any kind of tuned percussion that is taught by ear is easy to pick up even for absolute beginners. You might find that many of the residents can play an instrument at a basic level already. Perhaps you could find out and organise activities for them? Maybe you have the makings of a band, string quartet or folk group?

I went to an event where you could have your photo taken to look like a renaissance painting. All the costumes and props were made from everyday items like paper napkins and loo rolls but the lighting and filter made it look like a painting until you looked closely. Very clever and fun to do!

Perhaps some long term projects like assembling, painting and decorating a doll’s house kit, sewing a patchwork quilt?

Why don’t you ask the residents if there is anything they’ve always wanted to try?

Apologies if this has been suggested, I haven’t read the whole thread, only the OP’s posts. My mum’s nursing home recently had a lady who came in to do hand massage which I thought was lovely. All the residents there are physically disabled. They also enjoyed a music session where a couple came in and did music that would have been popular around the time they would have been young. I can’t remember the specific songs. The man sang (with a backing track) and the lady got some of the residents up dancing. They loved it.

They have music sessions at my Dad’s care home too but the songs were more recent and a lot of the residents didn’t really know them (it’s a home that specialises in caring for dementia sufferers).

Murder mystery party.
Talent contest
Karaoke
Archery
Target shooting
Whist drive
Flying bird display

Where is this place and are there vacancies?

My dad's care home had a performance from an Elvis impersonator, which went down very well. They've also had film nights and played indoor bowls. They've also made cards and decorated cupcakes as Valentine's/Easter/Christmas gifts for partners etc.

My dad is actually rubbish at engaging with activities and would often rather just stay in his room listening to his jazz playlists - he wasn't very sociable even before he was in a care home and he's even less sociable now! But he really likes the therapy animals and I know he liked the indoor bowls (which he could do from his wheelchair) and the Elvis impersonator. He has previously enjoyed film nights although he struggles with those now due to his lack of concentration (he's got advanced Parkinson's disease and some significant cognitive issues now).

He does like being taken out to do stuff with a few other residents. They sometimes take them in small groups for a pub lunch or to a local garden centre which has a nice cafe. What he would probably really enjoy, most of all, would be a trip to a gallery or a museum or an RHS garden. Those are the things we used to do with him when he was able to get in out of a car and into his wheelchair more easily, but it's almost impossible now with an ordinary car (as opposed to the adapted for wheelchairs minibus that the care home has).

You need a lot of strength for archery
My father is an archer but has had to give up at 84 as he doesn't have the strength.

VR headsets.
There is an app on there that uses Google Street view, so people can revisit their old homes, places of interest etc

Makaton

Local Food Bank

Willow weaving

Glass Fusing

Bring a favourite pair of shoes and talk about why they are your favourite

Chutney making

Qui Gong

Some of the residents seem to be fit and well. 84 seems like a good age to start reducing your more physical hobbies!

A community art project near me did a session once that was mosaicing the tops of picnic tables - the artist sketched out the design and then everyone stuck the tiles on. They looked amazing when they were done and a lasting legacy in the residents' garden.

Line dancing and barn dances were popular as you don't need to know it and some of the residents with walkers were able to join in too.

There are some online archive projects - they had a group working on one with the local archives where they sent you an online folder of old photos of certain streets and asked you to annotate them for digital search so partly putting hash tags like old car but also pinning down where the photo was taken from on google street view. The residents liked that as some of them recognized the views and they had some lively discussions about precisely where some of the shots were from.

Oh, and sessions on ChatGPT (if I’ve remembered it right).

You can use it to write poems, make pictures etc. It’d only be a novelty session really, but fun to explore.

I know someone who does art with her iPad. Uses a photo as a starting point then uses various techniques to turn it into something lovely. That could be good if you can find someone.

I want to live there!