Creativity and Connection at Bridge House

Discover how our Lifestyle Team has been busy adapting our packed schedule of meaningful activities and events with heartwarming results.

While the past few months have brought unprecedented restrictions for all of us, life at Bridge House has by no means slowed down. Our much-loved residents have been as active as ever while we’ve been coming up with creative new home-based activities and alternative ways to stay in touch with loved ones.

We’ve all got involved in embracing new technology in order for our residents to connect with friends and family via virtual meet ups, while in-person visits had temporarily been put on hold. By now, the world has become very familiar with the various apps, from Zoom to Whatsapp, which have allowed multiple family members to dial in and video chat together with our residents.

In fact, we’ve found that friends and relatives have been able to stay in touch more than ever before thanks to this new technology – and what a treat it has been to see our residents faces lighting up at the sight of their children and grandchildren from around the globe! A truly touching experience.

Of course, with the absence of our regular visiting entertainers, we’ve had to create our own amusement at Bridge House and so when we came across the British Gymnastics’ #LoveToMove online sessions we simply had to get our residents involved! These lessons were a mixture of movement and cognition that are proven to improve both mobility and memory and, it’s safe to say, they were a bit hit! We were so delighted that everyone got involved.

Similarly, we turned to technology to keep our favourite performers singing to residents, like Ben Healy who live-streamed his songs to us from the comfort of his own home, proving our residents love a good sing-a-long, even if it’s a virtual one!

In the absence of day trips, we decided if we can’t get to the pub then we will bring the pub to us, and we have started a fun new tradition of ending our weeks with our own pop-up bar where residents can enjoy their favourite tipple – and a packet of crisps, of course.

All our new amusements have only helped to grow the community spirit within our home and I’m sure we will be keeping some of our new found entertainment going for months to come.