Etching to go! Enfield care home residents take part in worldwide art festival

Residents at a care home in Enfield have picked up their pencils and went back to the drawing board for The Big Draw Festival 2021.

Residents and team members at Care UK’s Elizabeth Lodge, on Pennington Drive, have partnered with pioneering charity, The Big Draw, for a third successful year to promote the therapeutic benefits of drawing for expression and promoting positive wellbeing. 

As part of their event, team members asked residents what natured themed, outdoor space they would like to recreate – residents chose their very own garden at Elizabeth Lodge. After walking around the outdoor spaces, residents used their inspiration to create a multi-media college, complete with drawings, tissue paper, paint and even real flowers. The collage is now displayed in the care home for everyone to enjoy. 

Launched in 2000 as part of the ‘Campaign for Drawing’, the month-long Big Draw Festival promotes drawing as a tool for learning, and invention, and has encouraged over four million people to get arty since its inception. ‘Make the Change’, this year’s theme, focuses on the relationship between people and their living environments, and offers a great opportunity for older people to reminisce about their favourite nature spots, how the environment has changed, and look to the future at what action can be taken to help safeguard the natural world in light of the climate crisis. 

Michelle Sampang, Home Manager at Elizabeth Lodge said: “We had a great time taking part in The Big Draw again this year, and it was a wonderful opportunity to put our creativity to the test. Art can take many forms, from drawing to painting and singing. At Elizabeth Lodge we always like to think outside of the box to create imaginative activities that encourage new experiences for residents – so we decided to create a multi-media collage which is now proudly displayed in the home. 

“We regularly encourage residents to take part in therapeutic and artistic activities which promote positive wellbeing. The whole team look forward to learning more about the wonderful experiences the residents have enjoyed throughout their lives and creating imaginative activities that build on their talents.”. 

After a successful participation in the Big Draw Festival in the past two years, Care UK renewed its partnership in 2021 as the main health and social care partner and leading the way in changing perceptions of life in a care home by promoting activity-based care and encouraging other care homes to follow suit. Across the country, Care UK homes have been getting creative and working with their local communities virtually to create works of art around the theme ‘Make the Change’. 

Elizabeth Lodge is an elegant purpose-designed care home in Greater London which provides personalised residential, nursing and respite care for older people, as well as dementia care and compassionate end of life care. To ensure that every day is different and enjoyable each resident has a care plan that’s tailored to their unique needs, interests and choices. The home has an extensive activity programme including a gardening club, arts and crafts, cooking and themed events.

Elizabeth Lodge has been designed to deliver the very best standards of care and to enable residents to live active and fulfilled lives. 

To find out more about Elizabeth Lodge, please call the Customer Relations Manager, Jaime Stubberfield on 0333 4343 024, or email Jaime.Stubberfield@careuk.com.

 For more general information, please visit: careuk.com/elizabeth-lodge.

To find out more about Care UK’s partnership with the Big Draw, and for more top tips on how you and your loved ones can get involved at home, visit careuk.com/the-big-draw.

To find out more about the Big Draw festival, please go to thebigdraw.org.