Wakefield Care Home Residents See the World with Virtual Reality Technology

Residents at Hepworth House care home, operated by Ideal Carehomes, have been touring places they most want to see around the world using virtual reality technology, with the help of Live Well Wakefield.

Live Well Wakefield provide a range of programmes and workshops to support people across Wakefield to take care of their mental wellbeing.

Designed to improve residents’ memories by helping them to experience new places or reminisce about important places from their past, Live Well Wakefield took virtual reality headsets to Hepworth House.

Looking forward to the new and exciting experience, residents at Hepworth House couldn’t wait to use the headset, which allows each user to choose a virtual tour experience or a virtual activity.

83-year-old resident, Elizabeth Wright, chose to take a virtual tour of Keukenhof in the Netherlands, one of the world’s largest gardens. Elizabeth said,

‘I’ve always wanted to visit this garden as I love flowers and I’ve heard how amazing it is. It was great to experience it through virtual reality and observe the gardens beauty from the comfort of my own home.’

Elizabeth is an avid gardener and is currently enjoying spending time in the garden at Hepworth House, planting flowers in preparation for Ideal Carehomes’ annual gardening competition, Gardens in Bloom.

Elizabeth continued, ‘I’m looking forward to seeing how the garden turns out this summer and have been helping the team with lots of new ideas.’ 

Helen Batty, the Home Manager at Hepworth House, commented,

‘We’re always trying to find new and exciting things for our residents to experience, so we’re grateful to the team at Live Well Wakefield for offering this opportunity to us. Everyone loved being able to choose their own virtual tour, and they couldn’t believe how realistic it looked!’ 

Hepworth House would like to invite the public to their Coffee Afternoon every Thursday, where guests will be able to enjoy a hot drink, homemade cakes and stalls from local businesses from 14:00 to 15:00.

Hepworth House is a luxury residential and dementia care home, operated by Ideal Carehomes, rated OUTSTANDING by the CQC (Care Quality Commission). Offering 24-hour, person-centred care, Hepworth House is proud to be named a Top 20 Care Home by carehome.co.uk.

For more information, email hepworth.house@idealcarehomes.co.uk, call 01924 973 699 or visit idealcarehomes.co.uk.