At Alive!, we provide stimulating activities which help care home residents to reignite their interests and regain their enthusiasm for life. Our sessions are suitable for those who are very old, people with dementia, those with physical and/or learning disabilities and people with degenerative illnesses such as Parkinson's or Motor Neurone disease.
Each session can be adapted to suit different cognitive abilities with a focus on treating each participant as a valuable individual. Our workshops help to engage residents' minds, lift their moods and give them renewed energy.
Results from our sessions have been astonishing - people who can no longer speak sing whole songs, and residents who are asleep when we arrive are up dancing to 'Rock Around the Clock' by the time we leave!
We offer five types of sessions to residents, each an hour long:
Our Variety Hour includes sing-alongs, poetry & verse, quizzes, anagrams, last night of the proms, and physical activities such as giant balloon play, being in a percussion band and conducting the orchestra. We can also encorporate the use of iPad apps which are simple to use and aid creativity.
Our Guided Reminiscence Session uses the internet and a video projector to help residents re-live their most important memories: where they grew up, went to school, got married etc. Sites such as GoogleMaps, Google Earth and YouTube are an incredible resource for aiding reminiscence. We also include other materials from times past, including old newspapers from famous days in history and copies of old adverts.
Our iPad session can be run with smaller groups or as a one-to-one session, where residents can access reminiscence materials via the internet using the touchscreen (which is much easier to use and more intuitive than a conventional computer). Residents can also unleash their creative potential using iPad apps for painting pictures or making music.
Our Dance Movement Psychotherapy session allows residents to express themselves through movement, and is particularly recommended for those who find it difficult to express themselves verbally, such as people with dementia.
Our Art workshop encourages older people to express themselves creatively, make individual choices, engage with new skills and, above all, have fun!
For more information about our workshops, please click the links at the top of this page.
If you'd like to book a workshop for your care home, please contact us on 0117 377 4756 or info@aliveactivities.org
