A fun way to get your staff and your residents grooving is to have an era dress-up week! To do this, you would setup a schedule for a week, assigning outfit of the day to a particular decade. For example, your week could be: Monday is the '50s, Tue is '60s, Wed is '70s, Thu is '80s and Friday is the '90s.
To make the activity even more engaging, setup story telling period where residents can sare a story of their own from the decade of the day. It is great fun for the staff and reminds residents of the fun times they had their entire lives.
Check out the original idea here
"When the dementia residents you care for are afraid of folks wearing masks, you stitch a smile on one!!!" - Ruthie Knable
Ruthie's dementia residents were having a hard time adjusting to everyone around them wearing masks. Everyone can relate to this feeling of woe when day after day, every person you meet has their face covered.
Ruthe had the idea of helping her residents with dementia by stitching a smile on her mask! The best part of this solution is that it can be transformed into a stitching activity for any group of residents!
The pictures below show examples of smiles stitched on masks! :D
Memory Care residents at Oak Trace Retirement Community in Illinois have been making peanut butter dog treats for dogs at a local humane society.
The therapy dogs love the the attention and treats; the residents love making the dogs happy!
Luba Siryj, memory care manager at Oak Trace, had the idea to invite the seniors to make the treats, and donate them to the Hinsdale Humane Society. She says this activity makes the interactions with the therapy dogs more meaningful for the residents because they are doing an activity for someone else.
It also encourages residents to work their muscles, increases blood circulation and get some precious social time, all great things while residents continue to isolate.
To read the full story, click here.
For access to a recipe for peanut butter dog treats, check out this post.
Using puppets to interact with residents in memory car, or who have dementia, can be an invaluable way to help them look at things differently, encourage social interaction, and help express emotions that may be dormant.
Some might think puppetry to be 'childish' of 'juvenile'. Rest assured that this thinking is unguided because it fails to recognize that the minds of people in memory care operate differently than most, relying more on emotion and story to interact with the world.
That is exactly what puppetry achieves, interacting with memory care residents on their level.
The following are 10 benefits of puppets for those with dementia (by Home Care Assistance):
Remember, the beauty of a puppet is that the story you tell with it is way more important than the puppet itself!
Check out the original idea here.
This activity involves residents standing at the entrance of their rooms and having them try to putt their golf ball the width of your facility's hallway
Having each resident stand at the opening of their rooms will also ensure that a 6' distance can be incorporated into this activity while including the most residents possible.
At the other end of the hallway, either place a coffee mug or glass on the floor as the target at which residents will aim their putts.
This will likely not be easy, so residents who successfully putt their golf ball would be entitled to a prize!
Most likely, your resident's families miss their loved ones just as much as your residents miss their families.
Organizing an activity where families drive by one after another and wave to residents in their windows is something everyone involved can get excited about!
Setting up such a parade can be as easy as sending one email out to each of your resident's key contact, describing the event, and asking them to RSVP to the activity.
Your residents can either look at the families from their rooms, through the window, or be spread out on the facility's grounds.
All in all, a parade like this will bring excitement into everyone's life for the day!
Have residents with their own nail polish? Maybe one of your residents would be delighted to receive a bottle of nail polish as a gift!
A great way to spend an hour with a resident, most likely a woman but who's judging these days, is to treat your resident to a beatifying manicure :)
Things to include to create the perfect manicure experience are:
Treating your resident can be as simple as that! During times when residents are isolating for considerable periods, this activity could easily make someone's day.
Need to boost morale? Easy, award martinis!
The Quarantini Award is a fun way Samantha Goodman found to encourage communication and sharing between her coworkers and residents!
In no other time is open communication more important than it is today! Stress can cause residents to fold in on themselves and lead to mental health issues.
How it works:
1. The award is given to every resident who has shared something new with staff during their time together in quarantine.
2. They also get to choose between a variety of special treats (including many residents' favourite: the mock martini)!
What a fantastic way to encourage residents to keep sharing and feel heard during these stressful times!
Check out the original idea by Samantha Goodman here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/JoAnneHarrisonBecker/permalink/2998184213550851/
Believe it or not, the letter X is everywhere in life.
Sometimes it warns of danger, with crossbones. Other times, it's the written symbol of love ... xoxo!
The organization 'Your Art Class' incorporated all of these meanings into its art activities using a simple yet elegant X-grid template.
The fantastic art pieces below are examples of how an art session can bring out a resident's creativity!
All of these started with a simple X-grid drawing, seen on the left.
Starting this project is as easy as letting each resident's imagination run free, using their own X-grid! For a convenient way to introduce this idea as your own art activity, we've compiled a downloadable 'PDF Printable Package' complete with:
1. One plain grid sheet
2. One X-grid sheet
3. Four complete artwork templates
Residents can then choose if they want to create their own unique grid or start coloring a template right away!
Bring out your own resident's creativity with this simple and unique art form. Only you and your residents will know the meaning behind each art piece!
Check out the original idea by Your Art Work here: https://www.facebook.com/YourArtClass/?ref=gs&__tn__=%2CdK-R-R&eid=ARDXMJr-wD9eF00wKZmgKPlCDPm_u76KvcJSlyRcboXmkq5Gj0PDs9-mda1TPXoJe9AODWs9kyJzWBtT&fref=gs&dti=395882734197594&hc_location=group
Board Game Bonanza offers seniors the chance to engage in friendly competition and strategic gameplay with a variety of board games. You could make this a very large group activity, a tournament style or in smaller spaces throughout your community.
