Are you looking for a care home for your loved one? Before you begin your selection, you should understand that care home residents still need to experience new things and thus, the ideal home care must offer activities in its program suitable to the needs of your loved one. Activities that match with the hobbies and recreational interests of the home care residents are important for their own mental and physical well-being. It is especially important for residents with dementia to be offered unique activities designed based on their social history as part of their personal care plan. The activities help to keep them engaged throughout the day with positive stimulation and interaction while also enabling them to maximise their abilities. 

It is also important to note that activities and activation for care home residents is essential as it helps them to reduce loneliness, dependency, boredom and depression. Good activities for the residents also help to build and improve relationship between staff and the residents. Therefore, in your selection process, it is important to ensure the ideal home has a designated activities coordinator, variety of equipment and resources, well trained staff on the activities offered, tailored care plans for each resident and a calendar of activities published on monthly basis. A good activities plan allows residents to remain socially and physically active. This allows them to maintain their skills, which encourages them to be more attentive and interested in what is going on around the home. Good activities should be fun and interesting to the resident.

Types of activities that should be offered in a home care

The types of activities offered cover wide area of interests and vary considerably. A good institution should have group based and individual based activities designed to meet the needs of the residents. The home should also offer different activities designed to encourage physical movement and social interaction. The list of activities offered in different care homes are almost endless and mostly depend on the creativity of the recreational therapists and can range from sensory activities to mind activities. 

Provision of sensory activities is good for elders with sight loss problems while the mind activities keep their brain function high. A combination of sensory and mind activities is essential for elders that have suffered Alzheimer's disease, stroke and sensory or mind organ traumas. The aim of the activities should be to help a resident enjoy his or her life irrespective of the challenge he or she is suffering from. The activities in care home should be designed to inform the elderly that because they are getting older does not mean that they cannot continue to enjoy what they like and enjoy doing. 

For example, a care home Branston can offer gardening activities but with alternative methods to residents who love outdoor activities. For bedridden residents, the care home should offer alternative fun activities such as playing games, arts and crafts, group activities and participating in music activities. The institution should also understand that care home residents still need to experience new things and thus, it should continue to develop new activities and modify the favourites to enable elders keep doing things that make them happy.