Our nursing home in West Sussex is a home away from home for those who need a little more support. So that we continue to make our residents feel at ease, and encourage them to stay engaged and active, we hold residents’ meetings each month. This is an opportunity for the residents to make suggestions on what they would like to see and do around the home. This conversation usually centres around activities that we can put on and homemade meal requests that we can add to the menu.
We love an activity at Country Lodge! There is nothing better than getting our residents together in one place and enjoying everyone’s company, so when one of our residents is passionate about a new activity, we will do everything we can to make it a reality.
Last year, one of our residents proposed that we start a monthly art club in the lounge, so that is exactly what we did. Continue reading to learn more about the new club.
How it came about
Back in June 2022, we held our resident meeting as usual and had a great conversation with our residents on a range of topics. One of these was about activities held for our residents. This is when Allan spoke up and suggested we start an art club up.
Allan has called Country Lodge his home for the past year and he enjoys putting his ideas across to the team and the other residents. As a keen artist himself, he knows the benefits and pleasure gained from art which is why he thought it would provide an additional activity that some residents might find therapeutic and edifying for residents. His passion for sketching and painting also meant that he was able to help give a few practical tips on how to start.
Setting up the club at our nursing home in West Sussex
The staff at Country Lodge loved this idea – we always encourage our residents to pursue and share their passions, and this was a perfect opportunity to do that.
Within a fortnight of the idea being suggested, we had an inaugural meeting. We had 6 residents turn up to the lounge and get stuck into creating their masterpieces.
Running the club
Our Activities Ambassador, Delores Constable, has taken the lead in running this club. She runs it every fortnight for about two hours in our lounge.
Not much will stop the residents of our nursing home in West Sussex from getting together to do their art, so you can almost guarantee that it will happen.
The types of art varies for each resident. As we have already mentioned, Allan is quite an artist, so he will often spend the two hours doing pencil or pen ink sketching with watercolour paints.
Other residents enjoy the calming effects of colouring, so will use colouring books and watercolours or felt-tip pens.
As some of our residents have various conditions that can make holding smaller items tricky, such as the after-effects of a stroke, we make sure that all the equipment is easy to use for everyone.
Displaying their art
Of course, these pieces of art are often displayed in our nursing home in West Sussex. Sometimes that will be in the residents’ rooms; Allan has a collection of his drawings on the walls in his room and we love to see him making his space so personal to him. Other times, we will add them to our communication board in the communal lounge for all our residents and their guests to enjoy.
Sharing the work our residents do can brighten up the place.
Other activities at our nursing home in West Sussex
The art club isn’t the only activity we have going on in our nursing home. All our residents love to play games, so when they are not eating, or creating artwork, our Activities Ambassador, Delores, is often leading a fun game. This will normally include bingo, darts, or a range of card games.
If you would like to see what else we get up to, you can follow us on Facebook where we share ‘life at Country Lodge’ images with our followers.
Sounds like fun?
If you are looking for a nursing home in West Sussex, come and visit us for a viewing. We know that you can never truly get a feel for a nursing home without seeing it firsthand, so why not come and meet some of our residents and discover our home? Plus, you will probably get to see some of our residents taking part in the fun activity of the day.
To arrange a visit, get in touch with us by filling out the form on our contact us page, or call our Resident Manager, Debbie, on 01903 830600.