Bucket list wishes: Making care residents' dreams come true…

June 30th 2022 By Jessica Richards 3 minute read

Care homes are full of wonderful characters who’ve lived incredible lives, with residents offering a treasure trove of memories and lived experiences to tap into.

From a marketing perspective – this offers you a powerful tool.

We can help you take advantage of this to get lots of positive press coverage, while creating a memorable experience for residents at the same time. Here’s how…

First things first, bear in mind that people love people.

And care facilities have people in abundance with many stories to tell.

Here at Pic PR, we’re all about people too. And we’re also all about telling stories.

Our services centre on creating interest in an audience – be that via PR, social media, copy, video or design; we’re always trying to draw attention for the right reasons.

One of our core sectors is the care industry, where we focus on delivering PR results that present heart-warming, inspiring stories to portray your brand in a positive light.

In the past, we’ve centred on creating positive experiences for residents – be that by letting them relive an experience from their younger years, or even trying something new that they’ve never done before. A bucket list wish, essentially.

The beauty of this sort of activity is that it has a very positive effect on the residents, while also providing a great story for press to cover.

Alongside this, and key for you, is that it also promotes your care offering, presenting you as a care provider that cares about your residents, giving them experiences to savour and cherish. 

To give you an idea of what we mean, here are a few examples of things we’ve done in the past with care residents:

The Veteran in a tank - 
British Army veteran Ron Pendry took his wife for a spin in an 8-ton armoured tank on a military base, to help him relive memories of his army days. And by chance, this coincided with their 57-year anniversary! He was over the moon after this emotional and very meaningful experience. It was covered by multiple news outlets, with Fox News the standout highlight – showing it even had international interest!

Ex-policeman in a sports car
A resident & former police officer with dementia, returned to his high-speed car chase roots. To help realise his dream of returning to his policing heyday, we partnered with Car Chase Heroes, which gives motorheads the chance to drive their favourite film cars. He was delighted with the experience, hailing it 'brilliant' – and it was covered by the Mail Online.

Day-out on an ice rink
Residents got their wish to go ice skating for a day, with the team sourcing wheelchairs that could be used on the rink, and including two residents on end-of-life care, an amputee and a 35-year-old recovering from a serious brain injury. This was a very special day out for them all, and was picked up by the Metro and numerous other national titles, with BBC London and ITV London teams coming down to film on the day too.

Resident on a Harley Davidson -
Barbara had always wanted to go on a Harley Davidson, so we brought one to her home with a biker crew in tow, and she did laps of the grounds – before featuring on ITV Meridian’s evening news broadcast who’d sent a team down to cover it.

The Lesley MacLennan former model story
This former model modelled for YSL and Dior in the 1960s and we helped her relive her modelling heyday by hosting a fashion shoot – with a former Vogue photographer, makeup artist and wardrobe assistant in attendance. The hero shot from the shoot featured on the front page of The Times, as well as page 3 of both the Daily Mail and the Daily Mirror, along with many other pieces across national press.

So, those are just a few examples of what we’ve done in the past – but it shows how much the media love this type of thing.

We’d paused this activity during the height of Covid, but with things opening up again (albeit still with care!), it’s a great time to start looking at some of the things your residents might be keen to do.

We can help you do it, both in terms of organising the activity and then subsequently shouting out to the relevant media to maximise your marketing benefit. Why not drop us a line?


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