Raising Spirits: Care Home Opens On-Site Pub for Residents

A care home in Steyning has launched a mobile bar for residents to enjoy as the cold weather sets in.

The ‘Croft Arms’ has opened at the Shaw healthcare-operated Croft Meadow care home, providing residents the chance to have a tipple while chatting and playing various pub games with each other.

The bar will offer the residents the chance to enjoy and create several non-alcoholic drinks. The idea came from a ‘mocktail morning’ that has previously been trialled during a hydration week in June, which found that by engaging with residents to create the ‘mocktails’, they were more likely to increase their fluid uptake – reducing the risk of accidents such as slips, trips and falls.

The bar was the brainchild of Irene Pudduck, who was deputy manager at the home before recently moving to another Shaw-operated home. Her husband, Ricki, designed the bar with donations from Howdens Joinery and the owner of local pub, O’Connors.

Carmen Flueras, service manager for the home, said, ‘You can see the resident’s faces light up when the mobile bar makes an appearance. The residents love to reminisce about their visits to the pub or even working in them when they were younger – it encourages interaction, and everyone has a great time.”