How to have meaningful visits with your loved one in a nursing home
Maintaining meaningful connections with your loved one when they live in a nursing home is essential for their wellbeing, and your peace of mind. A strong emotional connection reduces feelings of isolation and loneliness, and promotes good mental health, it can also help the transition from living at home, to moving into nursing care.
We hope these tips help you maintain those emotional and meaningful relationships and make your visits enjoyable and engaging.
Ideas for making visits to the nursing home more engaging
Our residents look forward to seeing their families and friends, especially when they bring something along to engage the conversation or have news to share!
There are lots of fantastic ways to make your nursing home visit more engaging and feel more comfortable, and if you’re short of ideas, these are a good start:
- Photographs & videos of friends, family and days out are a lovely way to spark conversation, jog the memory or show your loved one how their family is growing and developing. It helps them to maintain their identity within the family, and it gives you something lovely to share
- Favourite music can be enjoyed together. Who doesn’t love a good old fashioned sing along? This often lights a spark in the memory and gets people moving and smiling
- For those who are naturally quieter, colouring or puzzle activities can be enjoyed alongside one another. There are some very good digital jigsaw puzzles and memory games you can get for an iPad, or you can print out colouring sheets from the internet
- Other games that can be played together are also very good for bonding. Chess or chequers, backgammon and other board games are kept in a games library in most nursing homes, or you can bring your favourites along for your visit
- A ‘naughty’ treat to share, to strengthen the bond. There’s nothing better to strengthen bonds than conspiring together, and even better if it’s a cheeky secret between just the two of you. A little bit chocolate or a sneaky whisky never went amiss! As a side note, we would advise you check your loved one’s dietary requirements first though…
- Crafts that you can do together are lovely but can be time consuming if your time is restricted. However, it can be part of a larger project for each time you come, or perhaps a family member or friend has made something as a gift that can be admired together
- Books or newspapers are a great way to have a conversation without the need to find a topic of your own
- Gardening. Most nursing homes have a garden area and at Ash Lodge we encourage residents to take part in simple maintenance jobs. You are welcome to join us for weeding, sowing seeds, planting out, pruning or any of the special days when the paddling pool comes out!
Ask your nursing home for ideas
If you’re short of ideas or would like to stay current on the activities that your loved one has been doing between visits, speak to the nursing home staff, and they will give you more pointers.
You may be able to join your loved one on nursing home organised events, such as Mother’s or Father’s Day, Easter and Christmas celebrations for example. Or visit the garden centre, the local pub or park, or take part in indoor activities such as cookery, arts and crafts or animal visits.
It’s not just your own loved one who benefits from a meaningful visit in the nursing home. It always lifts the atmosphere when someone is cheered by a visitor, especially children and pets, and the conversation often continues with other residents once they have left. And for you, the visitor, it always feels good to have seen your loved one living happily and safely, so please do visit whenever you can.
For the safety and continuity of our residents and those taking respite care, we ask that visits are made between the hours of 7:30am and 7:30pm. Feel free to call at any point if you would like to ask us anything.
