September is Alzheimer's Awareness Month

What are you doing at your facility?  We do some small fundraiser for the Alzheimer's Association since our Walk to End Alzheimer's in our area is next month.  I try to do some education in the newsletter for family members as well.  Does anyone actually do anything in relation to this? 

Easy Game

Everyone loves Bingo, well, almost everyone.. .  One easy version that we play is BIG Bingo.  We enlarge several cards, at least 6, and hang them on the wall.  The residents divide into three teams, each team has two of the cards for them.  Each team member takes turns pulling a bingo ball out of the bag.  When a number is called we use a post it to cover it up.  The team who's card wins first, wins just like bingo and the entire team wins a prize.  We do this is small groups of 6-18 residents.  It is a fun easy game for socialization, and promotes a sense of community.  

Facebook

I would really like some feedback and comments on this one.  Does anyone's facility have a facebook page?  I am sure some of you do.  If so, who monitors it, is it used by families and really, do you find it helpful for you facility?  Do you have any privacy issues with it?  I would like my facility to "catch up with the times", but there are concerns of course from the powers that be...  Thoughts everyone?

Satisfaction Surveys

Wondering how many facilities do Resident and Family Satisfaction Surveys?  We do them every year.  On it , there is one question related to activities/recreation.  Part of my annual review, and therefore my raise is based on the results of that survey.  This is challenging.  Since only about 1/2 they surveys get filled out and returned, it doesn't take much to sway the results into a lower score.  The respondents can answer Excellent, Good, Fair or Poor to any question.  The facility wants excellent.  A good response is not good enough.  Personally I am happy with all Goods and excellent replies.    The challenge is the families.  When families are filling out the surveys,(if a resident can't fill it out themselves) and they don't come in the the facility often, they have no idea of the hard work and dedication of the activity staff and no idea of the quality and variety of programs.   Does anyone else do surveys and how do you address them in your facility?

Nursing Home Week

Happy Nursing Home Week everyone.  I recently went to a Dementia training where the speaker was talking about moving away from celebrating life in the nursing home.  What does everyone think of that?  I have never been one to plan lots of big crazy events.  I feel that most of our residents don't love being here, and it confuses others, and quite frankly it is a lot of work!  With everything we do on a daily basis, Nursing home week celebrations can be exhausting.   Don't get me wrong, we do have several big events this week, but I don't hype it up as much as I use to.  With Nurses week and CNA week around the same time, there is so much going on!  What does everyone do at their facility?

Dog Show

April is Dog Appreciation month.  Each April we have a Dog Show at our facility.  We let staff and families know the date ahead of time and ask them to bring in their friendly dogs on a leash , if the dogs shots are up to date.  Prior to the dog show, the residents make homemade dog biscuits.  We give each dog a goodie bag of treats.  They are delicious, usually peanut butter based, or garlic and cheese.
When each dog arrives, before entering the room we ask the owner to fill out a short info sheet about the dog.  Ie, Name, breed, age, favorite activities, any tricks or other info.  Then each dog gets a few minutes in front of the crowd.  After all dogs have their time on stage, they have time to wander the crowd, and say hello to everyone.  The owners decide if their dog can handle visits with load of people.  The main activity room has a courtyard right off the room, so dogs can also take a break outside if need be.   We award a "best of show" which the residents vote on by cheering for their favorites. 
The dog show is one of the favorite activities of the year for our residents.  They look forward to it for months! 

Birds on the Web

I recently did a Science class that around Spring and birds.  There are several great websites that have live webcams of bird nests.  Some great ones are on the Cornell University bird site.  Its allaboutbirds.org.   My residents loved it.  There is a variety of birds, from red tailed hawks to great blue Heron.  Its pretty interesting.  National Geographic also has a cool website with all different animals, but some great video of penguins as well.  

Horrible Current Events

When very bad things happen in the news, such as the Boston Marathon Bombing, or Newton school shootings, I try to encourage staff to shield our residents who are not alert and oriented from the news.  I think that residents who are not fully living in reality, can really not comprehend what is going on and that it is not happening to them, or someone they know and that they are not immediately in danger.  Since most of our residents have lived through wars, for many hearing about shooting, killing and bombings, can bring back some terrible memories and could increase negative behaviors. 
For our alert and oriented folks, if they want to talk about it, do so in a small group with others.  I think it is OK to tell them to take a break and shut off the TV for a while.  Since I work in a religious based facility, we tell people to say a prayer for those involved, both the injured, the families and the helpers.  This gives them something positive to do and a focus.

Pets

Wondering what pets people have in thier various facilities and who takes care of them.  What benefits do you see at your facility from the pets you have?
Would you recommend another facility to get the same pets you have? 

Paperless charting

I am wondering if there are any facilities that are 100% paperless... Does anyone chart their activity participation directly into the computer at the activity itself?  This is ideal and maybe it will be more universal in about 10 years, but right now, I think some of us are part way there, but most of us aren't close.  In my facility, most of the chart itself is paperless.  I do the assessments and careplans directly into the computer on a laptop.  We never print the careplans, or anything else from the chart.  The improvement I would love to make is for my activity staff to be able to chart participation at the activity.  It would save lots of time, and be more accurate and up to date.  As it is, it often takes a week for the participation sheets to get charted into the computer. 
Anyone have any great ideas?

Facility activity when most can't attend...

We recently had a GI outbreak at our facility and had 3/4 of the facility closed down for illness.  When the residents could not attend normal activities for a week, everyone was starting to get antsy.  To help with overall morale, we created an all day bingo game.  Each resident got a paper bingo card and a pencil or pen.   Bingo numbers we announced overhead every 15 minutes.  It really helped make the day special for residents and staff also got involved helping them know what numbers had been called etc.  It was so well received, we did it again the next day.  And each day it did take from 9:30 am to 3:30 pm to get a winner.  I am thinking of doing this again for NH week, and including staff.

Great Education Website

If you are looking for information on various current events/ history topics to use for programming, and simple ways to explain things to your residents, try the Scholastic website. Its for teachers, but I have found it very helpful for programs such as Black History Month and the Iditarod.  I am sure they have many other great topics as well.   They break things down simply and cover other activities that you can do to support the topic and books to read etc. 

Science Lesson

I am excited to start monthly science lessons for our residents.  I just got Science for Seniors by Gloria Hoffner.  Though it reminds me a lot of a book called Science Experiments for Kids that I have at home, I like the way she explains how to incorporate the experiments into a group.  It should be fun.  Anyone else doing anything like this?