Westgate residents feeling the Oomph!
At Westgate, we encourage involvement in activities wherever possible. Whether that’s a spot of gardening, or an afternoon dance! So that our residents benefit fully from light physical exercise, we’ve teamed up with Oomph! – an award-winning social enterprise dedicated to enhancing the mental, physical and emotional wellbeing of older adults. We’ve been working with the Oomph! team for just over 6 months now and it’s safe to say that residents love it!
At St Pauls, our care home in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, Oomph! classes take place three times a week for roughly an hour, with activities ranging from dancing to seated pop-pop waving! Residents love taking part and many will often get up and have a dance or move their arms from side to side. The more sessions we do, the more residents we see taking an interest and wanting to take part.
Our ‘Oomph! trained’ team members deliver fun sessions designed to improve mental stimulation with regular, fun physical activity and new experiences. Our Exercise Leaders engage as many residents as possible by delivering safe, inclusive, imaginative and impactful classes.
For some residents, the Oomph! exercise sessions can really change their mood and outlook on the day; it doesn’t take much encouragement to get the residents smiling and jigging in their chair once the music’s playing and our enthusiastic team are leading!
One relative of a resident at Hampden Hall in Buckinghamshire said of the sessions, “Residents appear to show considerable enjoyment and sociability. Well enjoyed simple exercises to music – all those present participated to the full. An excellent daily routine which they are sure to enjoy on a regular basis.”
We even use an ‘Oomph! calendar’ to help with our programming of regular events days. The calendar is a useful tool for prompting ideas and planning activities around a particular celebration or historical event that took place.
Oomph! classes are currently being trialed at three of our care homes, but we have plans to roll out the sessions across our family of homes.
