A day in the life of an activities coordinator

Activities coordinator Bobbyanne Watson started working at Ashley Gardens care home four years ago after studying health and social care at college.

Bobby, as she’s known, together with her two colleagues, Sonya and Beth, start their day at 8am by going round the home handing out the visitor schedule to each floor supervisor.

Since the start of the pandemic, all families and friends visiting the home have been following safety guidelines which are overseen by the activities team. This involves escorting families, managing their lateral flow tests and handing out PPE clothing.

Once the schedules are done, Bobby and her team will review their plans for the day and allocate tasks. By 8.30am, they are ready to start their morning, usually assisting with breakfast first if extra pairs of hands are needed.

The first family visitors arrive at 9am so while one of them goes off to meet and greet, the other two will start their one-to-one activities. The morning schedule tends to be slower-paced with most of the activities taking place in residents’ rooms. Bobby and the team normally take a radio, a manicure set or some hand cream with them.

“It all depends what each resident wants to do. Sometimes they might like a cup of a tea when the café opens, other times it’s a hand massage or a manicure, or there might be a bit of bowling, no two days are the same.”

It’s during these personal sessions that Bobby will review the activity section of residents’ care plans to ensure their log and preferences are up-to-date. By around 10.30am Bobby will join the other department heads for the daily meeting. Here important updates are shared and it’s where Bobby will discuss birthdays and other special events.

The rest of the morning is taken up with more one-to-one activities until 12.30 when the team reconvene to update their paperwork on the various interactions that morning and their time sheets. Over lunch, Bobby will eat something and also help out with the residents’ lunches.

As soon as the afternoon visits start at 2pm, Bobby and her team will begin the afternoon group activity. Livelier in format, these activities can be games, entertainment or interactive fun.  One of the firm favourites at Ashley Gardens is Tuesday karaoke which started in lockdown when outside entertainers were no longer allowed to visit the home.

Residents can come and take part as a group in the lounge downstairs, and Bobby and her team also take their karaoke machine “on tour” round the home so that everybody has the chance to sing if they want to. Most days Bobby will take the opportunity to film and upload some of the activities to the home’s private Facebook page to share with loved ones at home.

“Families are so pleased to see their relatives having such a good time. That’s because they don’t get to see what goes on when they’re visiting so it’s a great way of showing them all the things we do here.”

Bobby says most afternoon activities involve her and the team “making fools of ourselves like the giant inflatable antlers we wore on our heads before Christmas which we asked the residents to throw inflatable rings at for our antlers to “catch”. It was very funny!”

By 4pm, the afternoon events have finished and everything tidied up and packed away. The trio update their paperwork and, depending on whose turn it is to stay late, one of them will remain till 6pm until the family visits have ended.

Bobby believes it helps to be organised if you work in activities as well as possessing a sense of fun. She’s become somewhat of an expert on golden oldies too with the tune Tie a Yellow Ribbon being a personal favourite.

 “I’m 21 and I’d never heard of it before I worked here – I still couldn’t tell you who originally sung it – but it’s a great song!”