HARVEST FESTIVAL GENERATES FEEL-GOOD FACTOR AT CARE HOME

Residents at a specialist dementia care home in Wellington, Somerset have been celebrating an in-home Harvest Festival, with something for everyone from a Harvest samba to craft activities where flowers, fruit and veg were the main ingredient.

Richard Dempslake, activities co-ordinator for Camelot House and Lodge, said: “We’ve discovered that our residents aren’t that keen on Halloween but they do love pumpkins, so we incorporated pumpkins into our Harvest Festival activities – hollowing them out and filling them with flowers. We achieved some pretty spectacular results!

“We held a proper Harvest Festival service, with our lounges set up like a church and a variety of fruit and vegetables on display.

“Our seasonal display was a big hit, and we quizzed residents on the produce and also had a taster session, which they loved.

“For the service we sang the harvest hymns people told us were their favourites – ‘All things bright and beautiful’ and ‘We plough the fields and scatter’.

“The residents also requested ‘Cauliflower fluffy’ and ‘Harvest samba’ – which are a bit less traditional, but both great fun.

“Since we have a number of residents who are unable to leave their rooms at the moment we had mini-services just for them, because we think it’s so important to keep everyone engaged. And we had some very appreciative feedback on these.

“After the service we had a lovely tea party serving warm fruit pies – apple, blackcurrant and apple, or cherry – with cream for those who like it.”

Next up for residents as part of their busy activities programme is the first outing since Covid, to the Gentlemen’s Club to Sheppy Cider for a pint of cider and chips.

Camelot House and Lodge is run by award-winning dementia care provides Camelot Care which also has homes in Bridgwater and Plymouth www.camelotcare.co.uk