Runwood Homes’ Residents Enjoy Trip Around the World with ‘Armchair Travel’ Theme of the Month
This year, Runwood Homes launched their new Dignity Campaign, which focuses on the qualities that connect us with a different theme each month. January’s theme, ‘Armchair Travel’, celebrates the different places, cultures, and traditions around the world. Residents could choose anywhere in the world to discover, learning about their culture, cuisine, history and language, and they all had great fun doing so!
Every home had access to information and activity packs for eleven different countries, put together by Kieun Kwon, Associate Director of Wellbeing and Dementia Services at Runwood Homes. James Cotton, Group Development Chef, also issued recipes for each of those eleven different countries, so that teams across the Group had access to useful resources to help make the theme come to life.
Heron Court, in Brentwood, Essex, kicked off the month with a trip to Italy. Residents enjoyed cooking their own pizzas, tasting Italian biscuits and wine, and listening to the music of Dean Martin. Humfrey Lodge residents, in Thaxted, Essex, had great fun exploring France, trying out French fashion, decorating with French bunting, and eating croissants. They also watched a documentary and discussed their favourite places in France, which made a great reminiscence activity. Residents also tripped to India later in the week, wearing Saris and enjoying a dance performed by staff members.
Paul Gaskell, Director of Wellbeing & Dementia Services, was delighted to see the success of this month’s theme, and commented:
“This year, we wanted to create a Dignity Campaign which considered all aspects of resident’s lives. For each month, there are three features: a theme to focus on, a link which centres on how the theme creates connections between the people who live and work in the home, and a main event, which will aim to bring the theme of the month to life.
For January, Runwood Homes Business Director, Sarah Sanders, decided on a theme to brighten up what can be a rather flat month, with ways to explore different regions of the world without leaving the comfort of their own homes.
Residents and staff had lots of fun learning about other countries, tasting their foods, and listening to their music. January was certainly a lively month for Runwood Homes’ residents.”
The activity proved to be a great success, with staff teams truly going above and beyond with brilliant activities to really capture the theme. Armchair Travel is an effective reminiscence activity, as many residents can look back on fond memories visiting or living in certain countries. It also builds upon imagination and creativity and promotes an engaging and inclusive environment with fun activities that help us to learn new things too!
