 This year we really worked hard on putting together a lot of patriotic activities for our program. Yesterday we had a group of folk singers come by and sing patriotic songs, and we wrote letters to soldiers last week as well.
We also have a few ladies who really enjoy making crafts, no matter how big or small. We’ve found that one of the crafting activities that seems to work well for a variety of independence levels is crunching up little squares of colored tissue paper and pasting them to an object or a drawing.
To get an activity like this ready all you really need are some sheets of colored tissue paper and scissors, or actually, I prefer using one of those long blades with a grid base (I forget what to call it) so you can cut up one inch squares quicker. We put these flat squares of tissue paper into small cups, like old margarine containers, and put them around the table for our members to choose from. They can then scrunch the paper into whatever shape they’d like and then dip it in some glue to paste it to their shape. Also, for those who have trouble with individually dipping each piece, you can spread glue onto the shape first and then scrunch the paper up and drop them on.
Have you ever asked your residents to bead a necklace at your facility? Do you have bright colored plastic round beads that remind you of 1st grade? I’d like to ask you to consider whether beading a necklace is an activity that most people do on their own when they are grown adults. For most adults, the thought of putting random colored beads on a piece of plastic seems boring and childish. So why do we who work with older adults seem to think it should be great fun for them?
When you’re trying to make sure an activity is age appropriate, its a great idea to look to the real world to see what grown adults are actually used to doing. Ask yourself what materials they are used to working with. For what purpose do they carry out this activity?
In truth, adult beading is almost an oxymoron. However, when you look around, jewelry making is something that some grown women have turned into a hobby. Today, there are kits that let you piece together earrings, necklaces, and bracelets that many adults purchase for their own enjoyment. One of my co-workers made everyone earrings for Christmas this past year! Here are some tips to make this simple activity more comfortable and rewarding for our residents and members:
 Recycle these as an activity! Activities in our facilities fall into three categories, supportive, maintenance, and empowerment. Supportive activities require staff or volunteer support for the member or resident to participate in. Maintenance activities help a resident maintain their physical and cognitive abilities as well as their sense of socializing, spirituality, and emotional health. Empowerment activities help the resident re-develop a sense of purpose in their own life. Often, these involve self-expression, personal responsibility, and/or self-respect.
When working with the dementia population, most of our activities fall into the supportive and maintenance categories. It is for good reason, that particular population has an inevitable decline in most cases, and we’re trying to prolong, or plateau, their lives with therapeutic recreation. Sadly, the person with dementia loses out on empowerment opportunities in our facilities because we’ve been so focused on helping them maintain what abilities they still have. We must never forget, that the person with dementia is still a person who is conscious of themself, and therefore needs opportunities of empowerment that help maintain their sense of dignity and self-respect.
I like to think that planning activities is not simply a task or job, but that it is an art. It is a craft that one can hone. Just like any other craft, it is not easily mastered overnight or by working in the field for a long period of time. In fact, I still consider myself to be at the beginning of my journey to hone my craft of being an activity professional.
I’m sure that every activity director, in every facility, comes across the same problem. Namely, that activities are becoming too routine and mundane for the participants in the facility. Of course, this is just one extra idea to spice things up, but I hope that by sharing my thought process behind this activity, I can help inspire others to innovate on their own.
Initially, our program was lacking variety in our table games. We can only play UNO and Yahtzee so many times before the staff and even those with short-term memory loss grow bored of it. In looking for a new activity, I wanted to start by investigating what sort of games our members used to enjoy. This way, I hoped to find an activity that would be readily relatable and feel comfortable for the members when we began playing. It turns out, somebody mentioned that their family played BUNCO with their neighbors and that it was a riot whenever they got together. At this point I was slightly petrified, I had never even heard of BUNCO.
It seems that every year between Memorial Day and the 4th of July we are always looking for new patriotic activities for our programs. Usually, we end up with some sort of trivia game or a new way to glue an American flag together. This year, we found a really engaging activity that you can do in a large or small group, or even one-to-one.
The activity is writing a letter to soldier who does not receive very much mail, to let them know how much their sacrifice is appreciated. How do we know which soldiers don’t receive much mail? Well, there is a program called Any Soldier where soldiers who do receive a lot of mail volunteer to help pass mail out to those who don’t hear from back home very much.
There is nothing more engaging for some of our folks that we care for than this idea. Many of our men served in the military in their youth and many of our women had husbands or sons serve as well. And, when you tell your residents or members you are writing to a soldier who does not receive any other mail, you can really create a meaningful, dignified activity for them.
It is really enjoyable to watch when one of your clients self-initiates a game. Today, one of our members brought in a deck of cards and was asking his friends to play Go Fish with him. He is a real charmer, although his form of dementia makes it a struggle for him to determine things that are appropriate. So, in the middle of a group activity, he pulls out his cards and loudly asks his friend to play with him. And, he doesn’t take “no” for an answer, he just deals you a hand of seven cards and waits for you to join!
The other members didn’t really want to sidebar themselves from the group, so I decided to jump in so he would have someone to play with. As we started, I realized I didn’t know what rules he was using for the game, so I asked him to explain it to me. Here’s what he said:
“Well, its a real good game, you’re gonna like it,” his southern drawl was soft but always genuine. “You get seven cards each, and you ask the other player for a card, and if he doesn’t have it you draw from the pile. When you get rid of all your cards you are the winner.” He gave me seven cards and then put the rest in a stack, so you could only draw from the top.
Almost a year ago we started a men’s club at our program because our male enrollment increased quite significantly. I can’t say I have definitive proof, but I do believe having a male on the activity staff (me!) helped attract families looking after their husband and fathers.
Anyways, this meant I had to look into what kind of activities our men’s club would be interested in. At first, I think I was trying too hard. I spent more than a couple hours scouring the internet for a great idea or two, but I ended up pretty much where I started. So I got to thinking, what was it that these guys would do for fun before their dementia set in?
One morning, I decided we were going to try Blackjack. I was a little skeptical at the time, I mean these men had trouble telling time and would reach for words they couldn’t remember. But, I figured if we never tried, we’d never really know, and if they couldn’t really play we’d at least have fun trying.
I was so glad when I came in to work today and a bunch of our members were decked out in their Tigers’ shirts and hats! Today was the first day of the regular season for Major League Baseball and we planned a theme day around rooting for the Detroit Tigers. In the past, we haven’t had many members who talked about the the Tigers but lately a lot of our folks are very interested, so I thought it’d be fun to throw a theme day. I sometimes get a little nervous because there’s nothing worse than throwing a theme day and have no one actually dress up or do anything for it!
Anyways, I wanted to plan a baseball game that we could do with our group that everyone could participate in and I started brainstorming about how a dice baseball game could work. I previously read a couple ways to play baseball with dice but they seemed too complicated or uninteresting. Here’s what I came up with:
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This year we really worked hard on putting together a lot of patriotic activities for our program. Yesterday we had a group of folk singers come by and sing patriotic songs, and we wrote letters to soldiers last week as well.
