Care homes in Dorchester, to infinity and beyond!

Published: Friday 31st July 2020

Agincare has been giving Steven Spielberg a run for his money recently, calling ‘Action’ in our residential care homes in Dorchester, Rochester, Swindon and Farnham.

Care teams and residents have come together to recreate some classic film posters, resulting in some fantastic images and lots of smiles and laughter.

An Oscar on the way?

The care teams have worked hard to find props to help the photos resemble the film covers as closely as possible, working with the residents to act out some iconic scenes.

We have heard rumours an Oscar may be on the way to the new celebrities at Cheriton Care Home in Dorchester, Rochester Care Home, Lansdowne Hill Care Home near Swindon and Tilford care Home near Farnham.

Recreations include The BFG, which we’ve translated as ‘Big Friendly Granny’ at Rochester and Mary Poppins at Lansdowne Hill.

Care Home Films - BFG

And the ladies at Edgehill sent us a cheeky Calendar Girls tribute.

Care Home Films - calendar girls

Rising to the creative challenges

Our care homes regularly set fun creative challenges, and it’s great to see them enter into the spirit of things with some awe-inspiring results.

The “Dirty Dancing lift’ at Tilford needs a special mention – that’s not an easy scene to recreate!

Care Home Films - Dirty Dancing

And at our Dorchester care home, Cheriton, residents recreated a poster image for The Cable Guy and Scream.

Even those residents who didn’t want to dress up could get involved in the challenge. At Rochester Care Home in Kent lots of people joined in with a Star Wars-theme arts and crafts session. There was plenty of fabulous drawing and colouring, including a Darth Vader mask which was used in the final film poster photo.

Care Home Films - Star Wars

And on top of that, Rochester resident Peter was joined by care workers Emma and Anna in a classic celebration of Aladdin – it really was a whole new world!

Care Home Films - Aladdin

The challenges are all part of the social activities scene at our care and nursing homes in Dorchester, Dorset and across the country. The care and activities teams are amazing at encouraging residents to get involved.

Another recent challenge involved residents singing along to the iconic “YMCA” by the Village People, ready to mark this year’s virtual care Home Open Day.

Care Home Residents Singing YMCA

A wide range of activities in our care homes

Each of our care and nursing homes has its own personality. Every single resident and team member is different and brings with them their own style, likes and dislikes, skills and humour. That’s why we encourage each home to talk to their residents about the activities they’d like to get involved with.

Some of our care homes have really flourishing (if you’ll pardon the pun) gardening clubs. During lockdown all our gardens have been especially popular, offering space to sit outside in the sunshine and have a chat. And the gardens have hosted our perennially-popular musical entertainers while they haven’t been able to perform inside.

Teams have been getting inventive and creative, finding new socially distanced ways to entertain residents. Activities which have been popular during COVID-19 restrictions include pamper sessions, Zoom exercise classes and quizzes. The residents of Rochester Care Home are champions of indoor skittles and ‘happy football’. And Shanade taught the Edgehill residents how to hula hoop.

At Lansdowne Hill the residents enjoyed a week-long virtual European cruise. They ‘visited’ Spain, Italy, Germany, France and Poland. Each day the Lansdowne chef designed a menu to match their destination and staff organised activities themed around it too.

It all goes to show that, no matter what happens, the Force is strong in our care homes.

For more information on any of our care homes, please call 0808 256 6038.