Best Dementia Activities part 1

I love to use music with residents with dementia. Any music from their era will get the memory warmed up. Even if the resident can not sing, or can't recall the name of the song, it may put a smile on their face, or a tap to the toes. We all know music can make us happy or sad. It is such a great memory trigger. I have seen residents with severe dementia who couldn't put a coherence sentence together, be able to sing all the words to a song. This is incredible, and important for other staff to see as well. The nurses and aides need to see that individual in a different light. If you can find a song that makes that person happy, it may help the aide when doing care. This is definitely important info to pass along. We all need to work together.

Music Appreciation Week

I just read that the first week of May is Music Appreciation week. We all know about the many benefits of music for our clients. There are so many great music activities you can plan during this week. You can plan activities such as musical reminiscing and music history to always enjoyed entertainment. Everyone will enjoy a special week of music! Maybe you can contact local schools and invite the band or chorus to perform. An intergenerational activity and music appreciation in one!

April is Dog appreciation Month

Dog Appreciation Month, what a great topic to center some activities around. A Dog Show, making homemade dog biscuits, learning about various working dogs. There are so many fun possibilities. I love dog agility. If you have a local club, invite a few dogs to come and perform some indoor agility for your residents. Great fun!

Easy Free Activity

Once a month we do a "Music jukebox" event. We do this in two different ways. Either using Utube videos or playing music from a CD. When we do videos, we find various artists and show the residents the videos for those artist performing some of thier favorite songs. This is a great memory trigger for many residents since they can also see the fashions and other visual cues along with hearing the music. When we use CD's we choose about 5 CDs and pick various songs from each. Those we print the titles on paper and allow the residents to choose which songs they want to hear. Many memories are shared this way as well. Both are easy to set up and take a little prep, but are also free!

Old Photos

Check on line at Flicker.com to see if your area has old photos on the web site. We've found pages and pages of old pictures from our city. They make a great reminiscing activity and it is very easy. If you have time to research a few of the old building or landmarks, that would make it even better! Its a wonderful resource. Many of your clients or residents will know about the building and history shown in the photos even if you don't.

Burn out

For those LTC professionals who have been in this position for a while, I am wondering what you do to reinvigorate your love of your job. I love the seniors that I work with, but it is all the rest of the junk that gets me down and makes me want out. Our facility has gone through lots of changes in the past few years, and some have been for the better, but others definitely have not. We have certianly lost the family feeling that once made this a nice place to work. What do you do to get your enthusiasm back?

Technology

How do we integrate or at least introduce some newer technology into our programming and even charting? Do you have an electronic medical record where you work? Do you keep track of your attendance on a computer program? If so what do you use? Do you use an iPad or other device with your older or younger patients or residents? How does it work for you?

Salary

I recently was reading facebook posts related to various salaries for activity staff. I find it pretty sad that many in this profession are only recieving $10.00/hr or less. That is not enough to show that facilities are valuing what we do. If Activity Departments are required by DOH to be in nursing home, and we provide the quality of life for our seniors we work with, as directors, we need to be paid more. I know various states have different costs of living and some are lower and therefore pay in those areas are lower, but $10/hr still seems to be an insult to the profession.

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.