18 replies to this topic

[khall]

I am new to the profession, and have taken a job as an Activity Coordinator in an Adult Day Service. I worked as an activity assistant in an assisted living for six months pior to taking this job. I had started to have success with getting the residents out for activities at the AL center but at the day service all they want to do is sit at the tables and stare in to space. I am having a difficult time getting them to even simple things like arts, singing, ect. There is such a wide variety of participants and many different levels of functioning. I would love to hear from anyone working in a day service to get their perspective.

[sharonclark]

[quote name='khall' date='Nov 22 2006, 05:51 PM' post='6284']
I am new to the profession, and have taken a job as an Activity Coordinator in an Adult Day Service. I worked as an activity assistant in an assisted living for six months pior to taking this job. I had started to have success with getting the residents out for activities at the AL center but at the day service all they want to do is sit at the tables and stare in to space. I am having a difficult time getting them to even simple things like arts, singing, ect. There is such a wide variety of participants and many different levels of functioning. I would love to hear from anyone working in a day service to get their perspective.
[/quote

]

Hi,
I am currently training at an adult day care. The approach they use is everyone participates. They sit at tables and the AD starts the activity
and they all are participating . Some are more engaged than other. A good activity to start with is bingo for prizes they love bingo. Another thing
they seem to really enjoy is music and she does sitter size. If you can ask the ones that are more capable to help the ones that are less
capable of participating.
Sharon

Edited by sharonclark, 18 May 2008 - 03:37 PM.

[ILoveMyLVN]

I am in the same boat as the original poster. I visited another ADHC where things were going more smoothly, but the AD had split them up into different groups based on need and ability. Plus there was more staff. They had one whole room there dedicated to exercise equiptment and an active group being led by a staff member leading exercise. Then they had a quiet room where the Alz. patients sat and watched TV programs, watched the fish tank or completed small crafts. In another larger room there were about 6 tables of patients working on different crafts, word search, reading newspapers, etc. and having scheduled programs like BINGO and bible study.

The problem with splitting them up like this, at least at our site, is having the available dedicated and separate spaces, and enough staff to handle it. In our center there is only one large room which also has tables for lunch, but w/in same room you can hear all other activities going on. It's hard not to overstimulate the advanced Alz. patients.

Also how can the AD do 1:1, or spend time with people not responding or refusing? This is especially hard when there is only one AD.

Any more advice here would be great!

Edited by ILoveMyLVN, 18 July 2008 - 08:09 PM.

[martiniques_mommy]

ILoveMyLVN, on Jul 19 2008, 02:06 AM, said:

I am in the same boat as the original poster. I visited another ADHC where things were going more smoothly, but the AD had split them up into different groups based on need and ability. Plus there was more staff. They had one whole room there dedicated to exercise equiptment and an active group being led by a staff member leading exercise. Then they had a quiet room where the Alz. patients sat and watched TV programs, watched the fish tank or completed small crafts. In another larger room there were about 6 tables of patients working on different crafts, word search, reading newspapers, etc. and having scheduled programs like BINGO and bible study.

The problem with splitting them up like this, at least at our site, is having the available dedicated and separate spaces, and enough staff to handle it. In our center there is only one large room which also has tables for lunch, but w/in same room you can hear all other activities going on. It's hard not to overstimulate the advanced Alz. patients.

Also how can the AD do 1:1, or spend time with people not responding or refusing? This is especially hard when there is only one AD.

Any more advice here would be great!

[martiniques_mommy]

Do you have a small outdoor area that people can sit and chat in small groups or 1:1? Do you have a Social Worker that may be able to help and talk with people on scheduled days during scheduled times? Also, sometimes the clients can even chat with the Nurse. Hope this helps.

[ILoveMyLVN]

Hi Martinique's Mommy~

Thank you for the helpful suggestions. We have an outside patio area, which also doubles as the parking lot...The powers that be are working on fencing the area where pts. sit.

We have a great social worker who has started haing groups 2x/wk. We recently added a sing a long with one of the nurses, which is excellent!! We have a dietician who gives talks and another nurse doing health education 2x/mo, so things are improving slowly but surely.

Many of our patients have a hard time getting motivated for PM groups & most times we may only have 5 or so people left by 2 or 3pm. Any suggestions for small groups that work well for those w/ lower energy? 2 days a week I have BINGO in PMs which they do like.

My newest challenge is working with the new Spanish speaking only group-- there are a few of them and I have provided crossword puzzlers and spanish newspapers that I found in the community for free. Do they need to have a translator? I careplanned them to spend time with eachother for stimulation & work on a plan for ongoing translation tools.


Take care and thanks so much!!!!!

~Me

[Linnette Workman]

khall, on Nov 22 2006, 05:52 PM, said:

I am new to the profession, and have taken a job as an Activity Coordinator in an Adult Day Service. I worked as an activity assistant in an assisted living for six months pior to taking this job. I had started to have success with getting the residents out for activities at the AL center but at the day service all they want to do is sit at the tables and stare in to space. I am having a difficult time getting them to even simple things like arts, singing, ect. There is such a wide variety of participants and many different levels of functioning. I would love to hear from anyone working in a day service to get their perspective.

[Linnette Workman]

I have worked in Adult day Care for Mental Health for 6 years now. You have to show the clients that they really are inportant to you...... They need self project soft music and a whole lot of laughter. What age goup do you have? I will check back later. LW

[Linnette Workman]

Regarding interest in Adult Day Care center Activity...Continue... .... We always keep items out for the clients to enjoy.Remember they really love dimenoes, crafts for group or ind. , the like UNO and skip bo for the younger clients.. One thing that the clients in Mental Health always want to do is BEADS and COLOR by Number. If you are able to get donations for your group one idea that I came up with a year ago was a General Dollar Store.... ....At this general store you put items for hygiene care, treats, 1:1 crafts items, note books, address books, combs, yearly calendars, socks , anything you can get donated.
They earn points each day or week for attending special programs and doing self projects. You would be shocked at the things that the clients will start bring to you, that they have done and things that that want to do for an activity. I have lots of other great ideas I would love to post later.......Any questions just write and good luck.........

[ILoveMyLVN]

Linnette Workman, on Aug 13 2008, 03:58 PM, said:

Regarding interest in Adult Day Care center Activity...Continue... .... We always keep items out for the clients to enjoy.Remember they really love dimenoes, crafts for group or ind. , the like UNO and skip bo for the younger clients.. One thing that the clients in Mental Health always want to do is BEADS and COLOR by Number. If you are able to get donations for your group one idea that I came up with a year ago was a General Dollar Store.... ....At this general store you put items for hygiene care, treats, 1:1 crafts items, note books, address books, combs, yearly calendars, socks , anything you can get donated.
They earn points each day or week for attending special programs and doing self projects. You would be shocked at the things that the clients will start bring to you, that they have done and things that that want to do for an activity. I have lots of other great ideas I would love to post later.......Any questions just write and good luck.........

Hi Linnette,

Wow! I'm so happy to hear your insights. I like the idea of them earning points..it can definintely serve as an incentive to have them avoid "problem" bahavior. How many points do you go by? How often do you hold the store? I would love to look into this further.

For our groups, there are different interests. One of the clients asked me why we don't have more discussion groups..Well in Adult Day Health, my barrier is that they have different attendance days...So we may have 3-4 people who would love discussion group, but they are not there in the center at the same time.. I'm trying my best to come up w/ a solution, but not sure how to yet...

Originally tried some discussion groups, but at the time all patients were about 6 total so they had to all be involved together. I didn't want to alienate a few of them..Well what happened there was that the lower functioning/cognitive impaired group would get agitated with the logical reasoning of a discussion that dealt with problem solving.

Hmm..I like the SNF model of activities because you have 7 days where you can provide acts. and more likelyhood to offer things that people like because there are more opportunities for them to engage.

On the other hand, ADHC has its plusses too...I'm still hanging in there, so we'll see what happens!!

Again, Thank you kindly for your support!!!

[Momi]

khall, on Nov 22 2006, 05:52 PM, said:

I am new to the profession, and have taken a job as an Activity Coordinator in an Adult Day Service. I worked as an activity assistant in an assisted living for six months pior to taking this job. I had started to have success with getting the residents out for activities at the AL center but at the day service all they want to do is sit at the tables and stare in to space. I am having a difficult time getting them to even simple things like arts, singing, ect. There is such a wide variety of participants and many different levels of functioning. I would love to hear from anyone working in a day service to get their perspective.

Hey there,
first I would do a assessment on them, their likes, tap into their job before...maybe this will spark up some kind of intrest that they might have in the past..plus you need to look at their ability and coginative level...Some times I may change my approach with them and say..I need some help? can you help me for alittle while...

Hope this helps...

[ILoveMyLVN]

Taking an informal survey:

How many of you ADs are able to go out on company time to get supplies (maybe something you cannot find in the catalog, or just need it more quickly than something can be delivered)?

I'm trying to find company time I can do this even once a month to go out and gather whats needed for the next month.

Let me know how you are doing this type of thing. I have had it with going out on my own time because the admin hasn't yet set certain times for me to go out. Even going for an hour would be helpful.

Suggestions?

[Cibrabomi]

There are lots of remedies for acne, but is there any way to find out the original cause for this?Ive seen a dermatologist and she asked me to do a complete gynecological check out in order to find out the reason why I came with adult acneAnybody with same problems?