Josephine

Thanks Talita.

Hi Out There, I hope I am describing this easily. I am wishing to capture, in a snapshot, a quick reference to the background of the resident, it may have information such as likes, dislikes, what they did for a job, family, etc. that I can place in their room for care staff to read, it would be like a one page poster. It would be a quick reference for others to realise that the person living with dementia has had a life prior to entering aged care facility. Does anyone out there have done something similar? I have put this idea to the staff during a meeting and they are very keen on it and wishing to know more about the people they assist. Wanting to get this happening fairly quickly.

Hi Lee-Ann, we do not make table centres as most of our residents tend to pull them apart, however we do decorate the dining room for each season and themes. We have made daffodils - making petal shaped outline with bright or patterned wrapping paper and then stick one of those small muffin paper cake linings in the middle (did that make sense?) - then hang them like bunting and dot the flowers around the windows/walls. Have gathered beautiful colored Autumn leaves, laminated, cut out and used these as hangings cascading down, when stringed together. We have also made triangle bunting flags - with images pasted on both sides- images downloaded from internet. Paper chains, in green and gold for Australia Day and then we have cut out Australian animal shapes and hung these from the paper chains. We did have a men's shed assist with cut out wooden horses with stands for us which we then painted and use as decorations for Spring Racing Carnival. We have made giant rainbows, use card board and cut and glue together in an arch - either paint or scrunch tissue paper in the colors and then glue in rows. We have had our students help out with these crafts. Have a look on the internet, some primary school craft sites have easy crafts to make. Of course it is dependant on your residents skills. Hope this helps

Hi Jerri, unfortunately the magazine group closed awhile ago. It was a terrific magazine and I still have my copies to refer to.

Thank you for this activity. With my residents they may require assistance so I am looking at this as an Intergenerational activity pairing up Resident groups with Students. This should be fun and another way of organising Quiz activity - I am looking forward to trying this out soon.

Thank you for this, I have commenced something similar but the way that it has been set out here is fantastic.

Hi Cathy, this is a difficult one. It really depends on the care staff themselves whether they have the right aptitude for lifestyle. Sounds as though they are told to do activities however they do not know what this means. I had a similar thing happen, but the approach I took was to look at some of the carers and gave a list to the boss of which people would do well in activities. I basically had to work one on one with people, give them a few simple activities that they can do, write instructions and have them undertake these activities with me. I found that colleagues were scared of doing the wrong thing. From there a few people that I thought would have the aptitude did not, and hence they were not given shifts in lifestyle. However a few did, I now have 4 really fabulous care staff members who are given lifestyle shifts now and are fabulous, it has taken 1 year though of hand holding. 3 are now undertaking their lifestyle cert. We had accreditation last year and I just documented what we were doing. The accreditors seemed fine with the explanation we are hoping to broaden the skills of people who show strong relationship building with residents. Can you speak to your boss about taking on 2 people at a time? Training them, getting them comfortable in this new position? Good luck with it, it can be frustrating as it takes time for these lovely people to realise lifestyle is not task orientated, they need to build relationships. It can work, but I am afraid, it takes time - they need investment of your time.

Hi Taryn,

With regards to the specific activities I guess it all depends as well in what level of dementia the people have that attend the day respite centre.
I have had success even with my higher dementia people with Mandela coloring. You can download Mandela templates from Google (google really is my friend), they are quite individualistic too, you can get the story of Mandela's and talk about it and the history. Look in Golden Carers I believe there is a template here too. You can use texta's; crayons; colourful pencils; water paint etc. We have turned a few into mobiles, currently we are doing some and then laminate to use as place mats - you can minimise and turn them into coasters, get some cork cut to size, glue and then use a waterproof gloss on top. I have been busy putting Montessori themed boxes together and again looked up the type of themes via the internet. We have already got an animal box together and I was able to purchase one of those talk back birds - they are hilarious ! Then walking/barking dog and a walking/neighing horse, plus books I loaned from the library and just copied and laminated them into cards, especially farm animals which can create some fabulous stories. We have our version of Carpet Bowls where people receive certificates for 1st Place; Runner Up and Shot of the Day both men and women love this. I googled popular nursery rhymes with the meaning of it (not for the faint hearted). Some of our guys are religious and I spoke to a retired nun who runs Bible discussion groups each fortnight - she is wonderful and not too serious a person too. Commenced a poetry reading group - called it the book club. I was surprised of the input by my guys. Crafts are always popular, dependant of how many volunteers you have - we commenced making our own cards for special occasions and book marks, very simple and then selling at reception and now down the chemist. One of my volunteers organised to get a stamp done up with Hand Made with Love and the facility name on it. If the budget extends to this, Bunnings has bird houses etc that you put together, complete with sanding and then painting - can be a work in progress. If you know someone handy buy one and see if someone can make the outlines (or again, if you have a volunteer, trace around the items, men can trace around the pieces of wood, then see if someone can saw out, sand and read to put together or see if mens shed can make up several for you. Mosaics? maybe do something up for a garden, a friend of mine went to one of the tile houses, explained what they wanted and asked if they have any cracked or out of stock items they can give away. She came back with some lovely tiles and being a crafty person had completed a mural with her charges - this was a 3-5 month project as it depended on how keen people were to undertake each week. Quiz's are always great, golden carers also has a book of jokes. High Tea? have organised donations of different looking cups etc. works a treat - can make simple finger food too if you are able to. Gardening - have had success in planting winter veggies of seeds from packets into egg shells - again look them up - then used polystyrene boxes to plant seedlings and will be re-planting our seeds that have sprung up - just use the egg shells. Ensure you get the right dirt for success. That way each week you can see the growth, maybe look at using some of the food planted? I am sure others will send you more and probably some of the above too. Hope this helps.

All are excellent points. Is this lady in pain and unable to clearly state what is happening? The disease is encroaching on her ability to cope with tasks. She may be feeling frightened as she may realise she is unable to undertake tasks that she was able to do. This leads to changes in her behaviour with frustration occurring when she needs assistance with these tasks that she once did independently. She may even feel resentful towards you, unknowingly, because she may dislike being told what to do. Calling for her husband obviously she felt safe with him, she sounds as though she does not feel safe. Clare makes a good point, how are people approaching her? Are people rushing her? What is the environment like? Is it very noisy, people rushing about, talking over her, making her feel as though she is a bother? A person living with dementia feels all this. DBMAS is sensational to assist you and your colleagues to assist this lady. At times we tend to forget there are groups out there to help us cope. They would be my first go to group and if not in your area Alzheimer's Australia are excellent too.

Thanks for the tip Jodie, that is marvellous ! Will get back to you on how it goes.