Activity professionals conduct nursing home activities. The activities planned in these care facilities are to help improve the quality of life for the seniors' in long term care, and are designed to meet their physical, emotional and social needs.
It is the activity professionals' job to keep a record of activities used with the residents, for one-on-one, in-room activities as well as those used in group settings, and to gauge the ability levels of residents and determine some activities that may be more beneficial to them.
Monthly calendars are used to keep everyone informed of the planned activities. These help the residents, the staff, resident families and others know what is coming up and what to prepare for. Many of these activities are planned weeks in advance and are based around monthly themes that involve the holidays or other large events, such as Independence Day (in the USA), Canada Day (in Canada), Remembrance Day, Easter, Thanksgiving and many more.
It is a challenge for activity directors to keep things fresh and interesting for so many residents in order that they don't become bored and even irritated at activities that no longer present challenge or new and creative ideas. Activities need to attract individuals and be fun for groups as well. Where some residents may enjoy crafts and singing, they may dislike gardening and exercise. Others may love trivia and reminiscing, but this could become too repetitious for others.
The creative and fun parts of an activity director's job can help to balance for them some of the stress they deal with trying to come up with a variety of activities that please the most people. It can be particularly difficult to come up with, and always have readily available, activities to meet everyone's mood, whim or preference on a daily basis. So it is a formidable challenge to keep all the elderly satisfied.
When activity directors construct activities to involve more therapy, that looks more like fun than therapy, the benefits can be multiplied. For some later stage Alzheimer's and dementia sufferers sensory activities that stimulate and provide pleasure are most beneficial. An activity like this might be finger painting, or working with clay. Some Alzheimer's patients need only run the clay or paint through their fingers, feeling the texture, seeing the colors, watching it move through their fingers, to experience therapeutic benefits.
Parties are great fun for a facility to get many residents involved and introduce a theme on a larger scale involving decorations, game prizes, foods revolved around the theme, music and entertainers too. Some of the more popular party themes used in nursing home activities are the holidays like Christmas, New Years, Easter and Thanksgiving, but also Valentine's Day, Independence Day, Mother's Day, St. Patrick's Day and even luau's that are a wonderful break for those in the colder climates where the warm days of summer seem just too far away.
Nursing home activities that appeal to individuals as well as groups are games and crafts. Some of the more popular games that are liked enough to include quite regularly on an activities calendar are:
• Bingo
• Reminiscing activities
• Trivia
• Paper crafts
• Coloring pages
• Clay crafts
• Matching games
• Word games
• Puzzles
These can be activities easily adapted to residents of varying participation levels or used as in-room and one-on-one activities.
Activities beyond games and crafts that can get seniors up and moving a little more are exercise classes, even chair exercises, wii bowling tournaments, and some other video games good for coordination building and movement. Activities like travel videos, sing-alongs on CD or DVD's, audio books and music programs to explore musical instruments, are also very welcome to most people looking to do something less ordinary.
Field trips can be some of the best activities to refresh the residents. Stretching their legs for a couple of hours in a shopping mall, or a park, zoo, museum or a local event can be all that's needed to cheer a brooding bunch.
The quality of life for seniors in care is important and the activities designed by activity professionals for the seniors to participate in to enhance their emotional, physical, mental and social well-being are usually always created with this in mind. Nor is this an easy thing to do, even being professionally trained, they can't possibly know every type of activity to incorporate. So they can be very challenged to keep things fresh and new for most, while still providing some old and faithful activities that many seniors have come to love and completely enjoy.
Nursing homes with activity professionals that have the means to carry out these diverse, therapeutic and enjoyable activities help improve the quality of life for the elderly, but also enhance the well-being of the care facility over all.
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