Creativity and Connection at The Spinney

Discover how our Lifestyle Team has been busy adapting our packed schedule of meaningful activities and events with heartwarming results.

While the past few months have brought unprecedented restrictions for all of us, life at The Spinney has by no means slowed down. Our much-loved residents have been as active as ever while we’ve been coming up with creative new home-based activities and alternative ways to stay in touch with loved ones.

We’ve all got involved in embracing new technology in order for our residents to connect with friends and family via virtual meet ups, while in-person visits had temporarily been put on hold. By now, the world has become very familiar with the various apps, from Zoom to Whatsapp, which have allowed multiple family members to dial in and video chat together with our residents.

In fact, we’ve found that friends and relatives have been able to stay in touch more than ever before thanks to this new technology. What a treat it has been to see our residents faces lighting up at the sight of their children and grandchildren from around the country. A truly touching experience.

With the absence of our regular visiting entertainers, we’ve had to create our own amusement at The Spinney and have been loving the new introduction of virtual pub quizzes! They’ve managed to challenge our team just as much as our residents and have provided us with hours of laughter. And even with social distancing restrictions in place, we have managed to stage a few special outdoor performances from with our regular singers, Olivia and Edmund.

Of course, while our day trips have been momentarily paused, this simply meant we had to bring the outside world to us, and as the weather heated up this meant hosting a Spanish Fiesta right here at The Spinney, complete with Spanish food, music and Sangria!

We have also been getting as crafty as ever, from making our own bird feeders to getting involved in colour therapy. All of which has provided endless creative inspiration and brought everyone together in these challenging times. In fact, it has only helped to grow the community spirit within our home and I’m sure we will be keeping some of our new found entertainment going for months to come.

And we were all overjoyed when our very own central office sent over treats for our carers and resident to enjoy; one day it was an ice cream van, the next it was a surprise batch of lollipops and snow cones. We were even sent sensory packs of oils and creams designed to trigger beautiful memories. Such simple gestures to let us know we are, as ever, in their hearts and minds – they were greatly appreciated and went down a treat.