Kim

We were in the midst of starting something similar at our facility just as covid19 came and turned everything upside down. Here is a sample that I did of myself when pitching the idea to our CEO who thought it was a wonderful idea. These will be framed and hung inside the room next to the transfer/residents information. These will give all staff, especially new staff prompts to engage in conversation about something close to the heart of the resident creating interest and common ground.

Hi all, With covid19 regulations in place, what is everyone doing for Mothers day? It is usually our biggest day/event of the year with a huge luncheon for visiting families. I have had the theme organised since mothers day last year "Lavender & Lace" and purchased everything ready to go. Now our residents are having all meals in their rooms and family restricted to 2 visitors per day with 15 min each visit. I will do up lovely placemats and gift and little vase of flowers (breaking down the big bunches I purchased to use as table centerpieces) on their lunch trays. I thought we may be able to organize with some families to do zoom sessions, taking bookings for times as we've just taken delivery of 5 ipads to use. Extra staff perhaps to assist the ladies with doing their hair/makeup etc. Such challenging times I thought we could brainstorm a few ideas. Cheers Kim

A new activity has been posted by a Golden Carers member: "Bored Board" Brain training for seniors

Hi Carol, I am very sorry to hear about your husband, but I think it is wonderful that you are reaching out for ideas to assist in his journey. We have a resident very similar and was an accountant/solicitor who was just bored out of his brain but also had vascular dementia. We engaged him in helping run our football tipping competition, going around with a folder (which he loves doing) asking the residents their tips for the week and then updating the calendar at the end of each round. Staff did double check before it went up on the boards. He also like doing messages and taking folders from one dept to another. We had a desk/office area set up for him with everything a usual desk has. We found him often in peoples room (with their permission sitting taking notes doing legal work with wills etc) co residents always sought him out asking advice and he would say come to my office for a chat. His family brought in folders with "work" for him to do and would pick it up and take it home with them. He also did any laminating we had to do and really enjoyed this task oriented role. We found great success in these activities for him and there were minimal times of boredom and as you say aggression of which he also had. Hope this helps a little for you. Kind Regards Kim

I just can't love this enough. Personally I am a big believer in silence and find that our residents can be over stimulated which therefore causes " behaviours" . I like to have a peaceful setting for our activities and read the feeling in the room before we decide to play music or chat. Myself in social situations where there is so much noise and commotion going on I feel anxious and angry at times so can completely understand how this would affect our residents on a daily basis. This is a great read and very informative. Well done.

Thank you for sharing this wonderful idea. Our ladies really enjoyed making these beautiful happy sunflowers. Everyone was able to participate in this group activity and it was a wonderful activity that encouraged team work as the ladies all helped each other. We used crepe paper and kept to the orange yellow tones and it really looks effective. We used an old gift bag for the vase. It sits in a prominent spot near our bingo area and the ladies are loving showing of their new masterpiece.

Our facility plays bingo 5 days a week and they would cry blue murder if they didn't get to play. We have money prizes and chips and chocolates. It is free for them too play so they aren't gambling anything. We have 16-20 residents who play daily and we are looking at having a volunteer to come in on Saturdays to do bingo also. Our residents have a very full activity calendar with wonderful interactive activities but by jingo they love their bingo.

Hi Rachel. We have an activity called "Special morning tea" that is similar to a traditional High tea, except we don't have hot pastries and sandwiches only use cakes, biscuits and fresh fruit ( I buy the items from either safeway or coles and spend roughly $30 which is pretty good considering we get minimum 20 people to max 36 at our teas). You could have this as a 'special afternoon tea" also if you'd like.We do this as a weekly Friday morning event. This was an activity beforehand that was only getting a few residents and was called "cuppa and a chat" and only used plain white coffee cups and pre packed biscuits. Now we use all vintage china trios, china teapots( From a $2 shop/treasure hunters type shop) vintage glass little jugs for milk and silver sugar bowls, lace cloths, embroidered supper cloths and tiered serving platters. I've printed out vintage china teacups and teapot images from the internet and laminated them to use as placemats. The residents all love attending now and are very proud that "they" can host such an event, especially when family visit. They love to chat about the teacups and pictures on the placemats and how they used to use them and what they had. Its a great activity for reminiscing. Most of the items that I use are op shopped or donated. Our facility has a facebook page and we post regularly and we have people donating things constantly now as they love seeing how we use them. You can create something quite spectacular on a very small budget in this way. Hope this idea can help you in some way. If you look up Havilah Inc facebook page you can see photos of activities that we do and there's quite a few pics from our special morning teas.

This is wonderful Del, thankyou for sharing :-) I also am of the same opinion and strive everyday to bring purpose into our residents lives.

We buy small notebooks and pens, small soft pack tissues, key rings, photo frames, face washers, hankies, nice soaps, hand creams, chocolates, mugs and drink bottles, quiz books, magnets for fridge, shopping lists pads, novelty note pads, playing cards, uno. I usually go to our cheap shop ($2 shop etc) and look out for bargains at the supermarkets and reduced price items on clearance and stock up.