Erin Masseuse Hi, my name is Erin, I am a qualified massage therapist and I am passionate about the healing qualities of touch. I have over 5yrs experience giving massage to elders in dementia friendly environments and have been coming every week to the Welcome Home for a few years.

I take a multi sensory approach, using music and relaxing images during the massage, creating warm, caring and safe feeling sessions with lots of opportunities for communication.  

There are many benefits to message, some that I most often see at the Welcome home are Relief from aches and pains 

Increased mobility and function in the body Relaxation during, after and often residents report sleeping better in the nights following a massage 

Feelings of peace and contentment, warmth and connection, being tended to and cared for.

I love working at the home, I come every week so I get to know all the residents and the staff. Some residents are very keen and enjoy massage right away and others need time to build trust and familiarity, it’s great having time to build rewarding relationships and see the benefits of regular massage first hand.

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​​​Aaron Fitness - Hi. I’m Aaron and I provide chair based exercise therapy for the residents. By using music and movement, I raise the energy in the room to create a vibrant atmosphere in order to encourage the residents to participate. The music I play is based on the preference and selection of the residents, and the movement is designed to develop their mobility, reactions, coordination and strength.​​​​

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Eleanor Music Therapy - My Name is Eleanor.

 

I am a professional musician and have sung in opera houses, concert halls and recording studios all over the world. During the pandemic I wanted to use my skills  to  bring joy to people through music and based on my experience of giving concerts in care homes for 20 years. I worked as a carer during Covid but then I decided to bring music into as many care homes as I could on a regular basis and make the music sessions helpful for carers too.

I am director and founder of Eleanor Music Services, a charitable social enterprise bringing  music into care settings. We are a team of highly skilled professional musicians and an experienced board of dedicated directors. 

 

We love coming to the Welcome Home for its warm, joyful atmosphere and fulfilled and happy residents! Every fortnight, myself or team musician Alastair Merry visit to find out residents favourite songs for a good-old fashioned sing-along round the piano. We bring our keyboard and lots of percussion instruments with us. 

 

We love getting to know each resident as individuals and also the lovely care staff- if a song is important to someone, it is important to us. People’s memories, favourite songs and dance numbers help them reminisce about happy and meaningful times. We love to find out the soundtrack to people’s lives. Music makes us who we are and in times when memory issues may be a struggle, music re-connects with the person inside and even words to songs, which may have been forgotten, come back surprising many people.  The group sessions are multi-sensory using percussion instruments, to follow the beat to lively numbers such as She’ll be coming round the mountain, or Boogie boogie numbers, and pub songs such as Knees up mother Brown, nothing is off limits. We encourage lots of dancing to help with balance, physical mobility and socialising and there is always lots of laughter. We encourage waltzing, armchair swaying and encourage people to hold hands and connect with each other too. Some favourites are Bob Marley, Buddy Holly, songs from the shows and some classical music, such as Bach. Scientific studies have shown how music criss-crosses many networks in our brains such as movement, speech, memory, emotions and many more, and can help change the way that we feel -  music really is the best medicine!

 

We make sure there is a good balance in every sessions of a mixture of activity and rest, lively songs and music to relax to, opportunities to connect with each other and time to chat about memories. We absolutely love it when families come to join us because then we can find out even more about individuals lives and musical tastes, and they can help to join in with the dancing too. We follow up with a report after each session with details of specific songs which resonated with individuals so staff can use these as part of their care in daily life if they want to, as music has been shown to be helpful in creating feelings of trust and connection  between carers and residents.

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Jamie Steen​ - Entertainer and Actor.  Jamie has been providing activities at the Welcome Care Home for over 25 years.  With a background in panto and theatre he also provides and outstanding, interactive entertainment session.  

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