Riversway Nursing Home has partnered up with a leading specialist to enhance the mental, physical and emotional wellbeing of its residents.

Riversway, part of Springhill Care Group, will work with Oomph! Wellness to implement a wellness project and deliver a range of activities for residents with a focus on positively changing the impact of ageing.

Employees at each home will attend development sessions which aims to enhance activity provision for residents, while an exercise leadership in care settings course, endorsed by Active IQ, will also be undertaken by Springhill’s lifestyle team to allow staff to run inclusive exercise sessions.

Oomph! Wellness was set up in 2011 and works to improve the wellbeing of care home residents and older adults in communities.

Donna Briggs, Managing Director at Springhill Care Group said: “Springhill aims to provide a life not just a service with a focus on enhancing the mental, physical and emotional wellbeing of our residents. Over the next few months, Springhill will start to implement a whole-home wellbeing culture which will see all of our staff getting involved in some way.

“We look forward to our residents feeling the benefits of our partnership with Oomph! as we work to further develop our person-centred service, complete with a range of fun activities.”

Matt Hamblin, Senior Business Manager at Oomph! said: “Our team of dedicated experts will work closely with the Springhill team to positively change the impact of ageing and provide innovative exercise and activity solutions, as well as a range of workshops and trips out.”

“Working with Riversway gives us the opportunity to enhance the lives of people living in care homes - no matter how old they are, we can ensure they live a full life, for life.”

Oomph! Wellness will also be working with the other care homes operated by Springhill Care Group around the country including; Birch Green Care Home, Skelmersdale and Springhill Care Home in Accrington.

Last week, Riversway activity coordinators and Matt Nolan, management intern, had the opportunity to get involved with an international Erasmus+ Ad-Gaming project, ‘Serious Games’, to support Alzheimer's research.

As one of ten care homes to be selected, Riversway was chosen to take part due to already providing a fantastic wellbeing programme for residents.

The Ad-Gaming project has been designed due to preliminary research which has highlighted that games can improve the cognitive function amongst people who have been impacted by Alzheimer’s disease.

Being part of this pilot project means the home can help researchers test which games work well for people with Alzheimers. At the same time, it will provide cognitively stimulating activities for residents which may help to reduce the rate of functional decline and support enhanced quality of life, social inclusion and wellbeing in people living with Alzhiemers.

The programme also allows experienced Riversway employees to share their knowledge and experience of working directly with residents who have the condition.

We are looking forward to seeing the results of the pilot project over the next few months when it will be rolled out across the country.

Last month Riversway Nursing Home invited residents and their family members to join the monthly meeting in the new ‘Forget Me Not Café.’

The meeting was held on the terrace of the Riversway garden which is now full of new chairs, tables and parasols to keep guests at the café cool during the summer months.

Everyone relaxed throughout the afternoon, enjoying cups of tea, fabulous cakes and delicious scones which left everyone full before they went home.

Thank you to everyone involved with the café and to Matt Nolan, Management Intern for helping with refreshments on the day – everyone really enjoyed the afternoon.

 Contact Riversway Nursing Home on 01179 555758 for further information on our next next Forget Me Not Café date

The weather has been so hot lately that Riversway Nursing Home staff have thoughtfully been thinking of fun ways to keep residents cool in the heat.

Throughout the day the staff filled up paddling pools for the residents to relax and cool their feet in outside. At the other side of the garden, resident Marianne and activities coordinator Kristy ended up getting soaked after a bucket appeared filled with water balloons.

Marianne was determined to get staff members wet as she threw the balloons and started a water fight.

Everyone had a good laugh as they watched the events unfold – it’s safe to say Marianne had to go and dry off after fun filled afternoon.