House of Memories - Museum of Liverpool

On Wednesday 21st February, four of us took part in the House of Memories Dementia Training at the Museum of Liverpool.

House of Memories is a museum-led dementia awareness programme which offers training, access to resources, and museum-based activities to enable carers to provide person-centred care for people living with dementia.

We learnt about how to create memory boxes and trees, to evoke memories in a positive way. We were shown how to use the House of Memories app to interact with our residents and we all went on a museum memory walk. We all thoroughly enjoyed the course and have come away feeling inspired and full of ideas to take part in with our residents.

House of Memories also run a family and friends course, more details of which can be read here. These training courses are free to attend and we would definitely recommend them.

We have got some Memory Tree templates to use to create person specific memory trees for each of our residents, and we are also looking forward to utilising the app and creating an online memory box for each of our residents too.

If you would like to get involved in helping us create these resources, please come and speak to us next time you are in.

Valentine's Yoga

On Valentine's Day, our residents and staff took part in a gentle yoga session with Gail from Wonderful You Yoga. Gail even brought her dog along who was a big hit with everyone.

We took part in some gentle yoga moves and then a guided meditation. All the residents who took part, thoroughly enjoyed their session and were completely relaxed. I think we may have even heard some snoring?!

Yoga can help improve physical and mental wellbeing in residents and help to reduce anxiety and agitation.

Yoga will be a weekly event at Holly Bank and we hope everyone continues to enjoy it as much as they did their first session.

Judy Garland Show

On Wednesday 7th February, Jenny from Musicures came to Holly Bank and put on a Judy Garland show. She sang some of Judy's famous songs from the movies, whilst also giving a history of Judy's life and doing some costume changes to show the type of outfits Judy wore. The residents sang along, ate some popcorn and seemed to really enjoy themselves. Here are some photos of the afternoon:

February at Holly Bank

This month at Holly Bank we have lots going on to help keep residents entertained during the last couple of months of winter.

This week the residents will be listening to a Judy Garland show performed by Jenny from Musicures. She will be singing all of Judy's songs in our lounge. The residents really enjoy these shows and get involved in all of the singing.

Image Source: Wikipedia

Next week we will be celebrating Pancake Day on Tuesday 13th, the residents will enjoy some homemade pancakes with a selection of toppings.

Image Source: The Independent

Then on Friday next week, we will be celebrating Chinese New Year with a Chinese Takeaway. We shall be tucking into some delicious food together in our lounge. Chinese takeaway is one of the favourites amongst some of our residents.

Image Source: Office Holidays

We hope our residents have a fun couple of weeks, as we get busy planning some more activities for the upcoming weeks.