Millstream House is our residential care home in Rochester, and supports individuals with Huntington’s disease, neurological conditions and complex needs. The people we support at Millstream House love to be busy doing activities, so we caught up with the team to find out what they’ve been getting up to in recent months and how they’ve done it…

Around the world virtual cruise

One of the activities Millstream House have recently enjoyed is a virtual cruise. They created decorations, arts and crafts, and cooking based on the destination they were visiting. To begin with, the people we support pinned places they wanted to visit on a large map. They chose places like Las Vegas, India, Italy, Mexico and more!

Leading up to the virtual maiden voyage, the residents got creative by crafting their very own decorations. Then, every Friday, they all visited a new place on their virtual cruise, experiencing the different cultures of the destinations. At the beginning of the evening, every resident received a personalised boarding pass and was greeted with champagne upon boarding the cruise.

One week, the cruise visited Florida. Millstream House transformed into Orlando, complete with Disney decorations, party games and music. The team even dressed up as Disney characters!

A variety of tailored activities for different needs

When residents are not on a virtual cruise, they are unleashing their competitive side! This year Millstream adapted an activity based around the tennis at Wimbledon. Instead of using traditional tennis balls, they used balloons to allow those with limited mobility to participate.

In keeping with the sports theme, the Olympics also came to Millstream House! Residents were divided into country teams for various Olympic games that helped them get active while having fun. For example, the home created a crazy golf course using cardboard, so everyone could reveal their inner golfer! Winners were presented with medals and trophies, which were kindly donated by a local swimmer who had previously won them for England!

But that’s not all! The team tells us Prosecco Night is another extremely popular activity. This sees residents dress to impress as they attend a black-tie themed evening. During the night, they are served food and drink while listening to music of their choice.

Sometimes these evenings are themed around a decade, such as the 1970s and 1980s, and by the end of the evening, everybody has had a dance to their favourite song from that period.  

Millstream Top Tip!

The first step to developing new tailored activities is by creating an upcoming activity plan.  This should always involve the people we support so they can choose the activities they’d like to do. Then simply adapt each activity to ensure those with physical support needs can enjoy them too!

Learn more about Millstream House

Located in Rochester, Kent, Millstream House is a purpose-built 22-bed service with 24-hour support. They have a beauty parlour and a games room, and the property is wheelchair accessible throughout.

Millstream House has a vacant ground-floor bedroom ready for someone who loves to be active and busy. To find out more, visit our Millstream House service page.

• 
• residential care