Lifestyle

Quality of life - that’s what living at a Care UK care home is all about

Meaningful lifestyles

With your help, we get to know everything we can about your loved one, so that we can make every aspect of their time with us enjoyable and meaningful. We call this meaningful lifestyles.

A unique and tailored lifestyle

 

We learn about your loved one’s family and friends, jobs, hobbies, routines, holidays – even their favourite foods – capturing everything in a life history book that forms the basis of their care. We want to know the smallest details: the sort of bread they like, their favourite perfume or cologne. When we know the smallest things, we can make the biggest difference.

Each of our homes has a dedicated Lifestyle team that organises live entertainment, outings, care home activities and other experiences tailored to your loved one’s interests and hobbies. Every home colleague plays an important role in supporting your loved one to enjoy meaningful one-to-one interactions. A chat with a favourite carer or helping the head housekeeper to do some dusting can make a resident feel special and valued.

Use the find a care home search tool to find a care home near you.

Living with independence and choice

Maintaining routines and a sense of purpose are vital for an older person’s wellbeing. We support your loved one to live as independently as possible, making their own drinks if they wish, helping with the washing up, or even taking part in colleague recruitment. Some residents take on roles, leading a dance class, becoming head gardener, or helping the maintenance team.

And if your loved one wishes to continue visiting their local place of worship, or a group in the community, we’ll support them. We use positive risk-taking to promote freedom and choice. 

Our good to go guide contains lots of tips to help you and your loved one plan trips out together.

Enjoy superb facilities…

Every Care UK home is unique and many have their own café, cinema, hair salon, even their own bar. Others have adapted spaces to create garden rooms, shops and spaces themed around travel, DIY, a children’s nursery – whatever residents need or want. This ensures that even if restrictions or a person’s individual capabilities make it difficult to get out and about, residents can still enjoy an enriching lifestyle. Many homes also have wonderful gardens. One of our homes, Broadwater Lodge, even has its own farm!

… plus fun and creative activities

The sky is the limit when it comes to the activities your loved one can enjoy. With everything tailored to residents’ interests, every home has a different and ever-changing programme. Some of our homes run fantastic arts activities, while music sessions, dancing and live entertainment are popular in others. 

 

Seated exercise classes take place in most homes, and some homes have a strong fitness focus. Parsons Grange has its own gym, and in normal times at Mowat Court in Stonehaven residents have enjoyed swimming sessions and dementia-friendly yoga. One gentleman has taken his love of walking to new levels – exploring different Scottish cities on foot.

Pub quizzes, afternoon teas, wine and cheese evenings, themed days, fundraising, and intergenerational activities – the list of activities goes on. Even during lockdowns our Lifestyle teams adapted care home  activities so life stayed as normal as possible for residents. 

Here are 11 activities you can try with your loved one.

Making wishes come true

Care UK residents still have goals and wishes they want to achieve. In every home there’s a wishing tree where residents can hang their written wishes of the things they’d like to do. It’s our privilege to make these happen.

Some wishes can be big. We’ve enabled a retired priest to meet the Pope, organised for penguins to visit a home, and supported a 93-year-old gentleman to go skiing for the first time. A resident of Davers Court has gone gliding, not once but twice!

 

Other wishes are small, and even during lockdowns we’ve kept fulfilling them – organising a romantic anniversary meal, or hosting a 100^th birthday party and inviting the lady’s family to join virtually. Colleagues have brought in their dogs so residents could cuddle a furry friend. We’ve even hosted a ‘cockney knees up’ for an East End boy.

Read more about the wishing tree initiative

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT LIFE IN A CARE UK HOME