When good practice gets thrown in the skip: Protecting meaningful activities in care homes

There was one March I’ll never forget - a moment that taught me a lot about meaningful activities in care homes and how easily good practice can be misunderstood.

A regional manager visited the home.

Without asking, without a conversation, without curiosity, she removed the memory boxes from the walls outside residents’ rooms because most of them were empty, and she threw them in the skip.

Those boxes weren’t decorative extras. They had been bought from our budget following discussions after staff training.

They were part of a person-centred approach.

Using memory boxes to support residents living with dementia

Staff were in the process of filling the memory boxes with personalised prompts - photographs, objects, meaningful clues - to help residents recognise their rooms and to support visitors and staff to start better conversations.

They were empty because the work had just begun.

And in one swift decision, they were gone.

If you’ve ever had something similar happen, you’ll know this feeling isn’t really about the item itself.

It’s about being undermined.

It’s about not being asked.

It’s about meaningful work being judged at a glance.

And it hurts.

When person-centred activities in care homes look unfinished

In care homes, meaningful practice doesn’t always look impressive straight away.

A new reminiscence group might have only three residents attending at first. A gardening project might look like a lot of soil and mess before the bulbs grow and start to flower.

A quiet corner might look unused before it becomes a safe haven.

Person-centred work often looks unfinished before it looks successful.

The memory boxes were empty because we were building something carefully. We were working through residents’ histories (the H in HELPS), gathering stories, family input, personal items.

That takes time. Trust. Conversations.

But to someone walking past, they looked empty.

And empty was interpreted as unnecessary.

Why activity coordinators sometimes feel their work is misunderstood.

If you’re an activity coordinator reading this, I wonder if part of you worries about this too.

• “What if management doesn’t understand what I’m trying to build?”

• “What if they think this is pointless?”

• “What if all my effort is invisible?”

  
  

March can feel particularly exposing. Budgets get reviewed. Regional visits happen. There’s a sense of evaluation in the air.

And meaningful activity provision is often judged by what can be seen immediately.

Not by what is quietly growing.

Why meaningful activities in care homes need explanation

The hardest part wasn’t losing the boxes.

It was not being asked.

A simple question would have changed everything:

“Tell me about these.”

That’s all it would have taken.

Because when someone asks, you can explain:

• How personalised prompts support orientation.

• How they encourage visitors to connect.

• How they reduce distress for residents living with dementia.

• How they strengthen identity and belonging.

Good practice deserves conversation - not assumptions.

How activity coordinators can protect meaningful activities in care homes

So what do we do, when we know our work may not always be understood at first glance?

Here are three gentle but powerful shifts:

Make the why visible

Don’t just implement, explain.

Add a small sign beside a new initiative:

“Memory boxes are being personalised to support recognition, identity and meaningful conversation. Please speak to the activities team if you’d like to contribute.”

Put the purpose in writing.

When the why is visible, the work is harder to dismiss.

Use the language of outcomes

You already know your work matters.

But sometimes you need the language to articulate it confidently.

Instead of saying:

“We’re filling memory boxes.”

Try:

“We’re supporting orientation, reducing anxiety and promoting meaningful engagement through personalised environmental cues.”

It’s the same work.

But framed through wellbeing outcomes.

Activities are not decoration. They are preventative wellbeing practice.

Hold your professional ground

You are not just doing activities, you are:

• Supporting identity.

• Reducing isolation.

• Enabling expression.

• Strengthening relationships.

• Improving quality of life.

That is skilled work.

It requires understanding residents’ Histories, Experiences, Lifestyles, Preferences and Strengths.

It requires thought.

If something you introduce is in progress, it doesn’t mean it’s ineffective. It means it’s being built properly.

Supporting person-centred care when ideas are dismissed

If something you created has been removed, criticised or dismissed without discussion, please hear this:

It does not mean you were wrong.

It does not mean the idea lacked value.

Sometimes it means the explanation hadn’t happened yet.

Sometimes it means the person making the decision didn’t pause long enough to ask.

That is frustrating and it can feel defeating. But it should not shrink your creativity.

Because when coordinators stop trying new things out of fear of criticism, residents lose opportunities.

What that experience taught me

It taught me to explain more clearly.

To evidence impact.

To connect activity provision directly to wellbeing outcomes.

And to support other coordinators so they don’t feel alone when their professional judgement is questioned.

Meaningful practice sometimes needs protecting. Not defensively, but confidently.

So if you’re building something this month, something that still looks unfinished, slow, or quietly taking shape, try not to judge it too quickly.

Meaningful work often needs a little time to grow.

Keep taking those small steps: gathering residents’ stories, adding personal touches, inviting families to contribute, or simply noticing what sparks a conversation.

Spring projects don’t look like gardens on day one.

They look like soil.

And soil is not empty.

It’s where new growth begins. 💚