A Liverpool-based care home went viral on TikTok this week with over 43k views and counting.
Park View Nursing Home on Ullet Road posted the video yesterday (May 23) on its account @parkviewnursinghome. The one-minute video shows the different types of dementia therapies the nursing home is introducing to its residents.
The clip uses Ed Sheeran’s song ‘Photograph’ and begins by showing the residents exploring ‘doll therapy’ as they hold a life-like baby. Jodie Solaiman, who made the TikTok, said: “We do a lot of videos to try to capture special memories and moments.
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“They’re nice to share with the families as well. We wanted to see how residents responded to certain types of therapy.
“They were over the moon and responded straight away as they couldn’t stop smiling. Everyone was so calm and smitten with the baby.”
Jodie, 27, said everyone engaged well with the doll and some began to see it as the care home’s baby. She asked them what they’d name the doll and a few suggested their mother’s name or their daughter’s name.
The second part of the video shows the benefits of ‘reminiscence therapy’ – which uses different resources from the past to help residents engage in conversation and see what they can recognise. The Alzheimer’s Society sent Park View resources such as ration books, shillings, games and other items residents could remember from their young adulthood.
They also tried music therapy, which involved singing and dancing with the staff and relatives. In art therapy they tried painting to make textured and abstract canvases.
The staff put the video together for Dementia Action Week – an awareness campaign run by the Alzheimer’s Society to encourage people to “act on dementia” and help understand memory loss. The campaign ran from May 16 to 22.
Users flocked to the comments to share their admiration for the staff and appreciation for the different types of therapy shown in the video. @kerryblueberry26 said: “This is truly, truly beautiful” and @creasyanne commented “So nice to see a home with so many activities for the residents”.
@Jenjenn96 said: “I’ll forever love being a care worker. It’s moments like this, when you see a smile or a memory spark that makes the work all worth it.”
Not included in the video was ‘dog therapy’. Jodie regularly brings in her Japanese Spitz, Floyd, to greet those in the home. She said: “They’re all just obsessed with him!”
This is not the first time the care home has gone viral on TikTok. In March they posted an ‘expectation versus reality’ video of food served on site, ranking up a further 26k views as TikTok users marvelled at the meals, which Jodie said are “first class” and “like being in a restaurant”.
Jodie, who is from Frodsham, said: “We’ve had a lot of success with TikTok. We’re hoping it will give other homes a little bit of inspiration and spread awareness of the benefits of these different types of therapies.
“We also want to change what people think happens in a care home because there’s so many different things you can do. We want to show the local community what’s going on.”
The nursing home has fully embraced modern technology – and even has a VR headset for its residents to use. Jodie said one man, who used to be a sailor, was thrilled when they managed to use the headset to recreate the experience of being on a boat.
Jodie is the regional activities and marketing coordinator for Kingsley Healthcare. She said Park View nursing home only opened in November but has already been valuable to the South Liverpool community.
She said: “The staff are a big reason why the care home is so lovely. They care so much about the residents and they really get involved. They were all dancing and singing as part of the dementia therapy this week.”
Many of the home's residents were born and raised in Liverpool and have lived in the area all their lives. There are lots of committed football fans for both Liverpool and Everton.
