Jean

Our residents have dementia, our lounge is really 'well' decorated with paper chains, mobiles and other odds and ends of random craft work. does anyone have any information regarding how this will effect the dementia residents? Initially the aim was to brighten up the room but if a busy, noisy room is difficult for residents who are cognitively impaired will all these random decorations effect them in the same way? Looking forward to your views. Thank you.

Thank you so much, that's fantastic.

Is it going to become a regular feature? I would love to use it at 10AM teatime each day but do appreciate that it is a lot of work.

Thank You for this, we can afford to do a trip every month.

We will also make good use of this activity over morning coffee, Thank you

Hi Pam, I'm not sure if this will help you at all but I will share my program with you. AM we do a group session of armchair exercise (different people attend each day so social distancing not a problem). PM, straight after lunch, in the lounge tea coffee chat, 2PM group activity Monday Memory Club (Reminiscing), Tue Bingo, Wed craft/gardening, Thur Musical Bingo, Friday Movie/DVD in our pub area. From 4- 5:30 i'm in the lounge and may have a few people playing dominoes, listening to music or watching you tube (with tablets & headsets) doing jigsaw puzzles, knitting or winding/tidying wool etc, rummage baskets, sorting laundry, pairing socks etc, looking at magazines etc. As it is all taking place in the lounge I can keep them going with the support of 1 or 2 carers.

Hi Margo, I have had a lot of success with a sing along that we frequently have. I used the internet to get the lyrics of the residents favourite songs and we sing them supported by Alexa. It is quite a bit of work as you need to ensure that the lyrics you have, correspond with the version of the song on Alexa. I have about 25 songs and it has been worth doing. My residents enjoy it when Alexa 'talks' back to me and tells me she is having trouble understanding me right now etc.

Enjoy the new job, if you use this site you cant go wrong.

Indian food is so tasty and the colour and texture of the traditional clothing is really lovely. I think it will be a day that many of your residents will enjoy.

Thanks Natalie, I am going to try the library in a town near here and see what they have.
It turned out that one of my ladies met her late husband through a pen pal scheme.
Another lady remembered going to the post office every week to collect some money 'without that trip to the post office I would have not been able to feed my children' she recalled.
They all recalled lessons at school where they were taught the format of a letter etc.
We spoke about writing to a family member and telling them we were expecting a new baby, then I gave them a parcel to open that contained a new babies knitted jacket, bootees, bonnet and mittens. It was quite an emotional but enjoyable session.