The Social Benefits of Living in a Residential Care Home

While many elderly people prefer their home comforts and the familiarity of their own home, life can be difficult, particularly if they live alone. Here Baxendale Care Home, a residential retirement home in Whetstone, outline some of the practical and social benefits of moving into a retirement community like our own.

The Problems of Loneliness

According to Age UK, more than 2million people live alone in the UK.

This can be due to retirement, family living elsewhere, deaths of loved ones or physical immobility which makes it hard to get out and about. All of these factors means it is very easy to become socially isolated if living alone.

The NHS warns that this can easily lead to a decline in physical and mental health, wellbeing and can be a major trigger for a diagnosis of depression.

How Residential Care Homes Can Help

Although you or your loved one may not like the idea of leaving home, a residential care home has lots of advantages compared to living alone through old age.

Care homes give people the chance to socialise with others on a daily basis. What’s particularly important is most residents are usually of similar ages, meaning that it’s easy to find things in common with each other.

Many residential care homes (ours included) also offer a variety of outside activities to help stimulate socialisation, such as trips to places of interest, as well as a programme of in-house social activities.

The Social Activities at Baxendale

At Baxendale, as a 24 hour caring home in North London, we offer a varied programme of activities for our residents to enjoy, including singalongs at the piano, arts and crafts groups, cooking lessons and bingo, amongst others.

We also have visits from outside, including visits from children at nearby schools and local musicians. Our social activities aren’t just restricted to inside the care home either – we also offer trips to the theatre, the pub, and local places of worship to ensure we provide a varied calendar of enjoyable activities.

While we ensure that we put on a wide variety of events, we understand that not everything is everyone’s cup of tea, so none of our social activities are compulsory – our residents can take part in as many or as few sessions as they like.

The Other Benefits

There are a host of other benefits, not purely social, of moving into a care home like our own.

Safety – You have a much lower chance of being taken advantage of by criminals if you or your loved one are living with others. Also, if you have a fall or other medical emergency there will be staff on hand 24 hours per-day to look after you, and to give you the prompt medical attention you need.

Eating and drinking – It’s much easier to sustain a varied and healthy diet in a care home. Our five-star kitchen and team of in-house caterers ensure that all our residents receive high-quality, nutritious meals which take account of all their various conditions.

Peace of mind – This is not just for our residents, but their relatives too, who know that their loved ones will be looked after 24/7.

The medical care – Although residential care homes are slightly different to nursing homes, you or your loved one still get around the clock care from our dedicated healthcare professionals who will ensure your medical needs are met, and that you take all your medication. At Baxendale, our dedicated staff work in eight-hour shifts split across the day – ensuring that we genuinely are a 24-hour caring home in North London.

Baxendale Care Home – a Retirement Home in Whetstone

If you would like to know more about the services we can offer at Baxendale, then follow this link and fill in the online form.

You can also call us on 020 8445 1127 or email us at info@baxendalecare.org.uk.