5 replies to this topic

[Jenbean81]

Is there anyone out there that has Activities and Restorative Therapy together?? My facility is looking into doing that and we are looking for any info we can get.

[jules1971]

Jenbean81, on Mar 5 2009, 09:30 AM, said:

Is there anyone out there that has Activities and Restorative Therapy together?? My facility is looking into doing that and we are looking for any info we can get.

Gosh, I can't remember when, but I know I posted something on here last summer because we were going thru the same thing.... and as much as I was 100% in agreement with the program, I had to fight to make it NOT an activity job. We help the restorative aides when ever possible- but usually with the LARGE exercise group- mid morning. That group started with about 8 residents now the group is so big that we have about 30 residents (and of course, you need one staff person for every 4 residents). Its working out well. But I still believe that activities should be activities and restorative should be therapy- to maintain continuity with who is an activity staff and who come is the restorative aide- makes for less confusion for the residents. Good luck. Its a wonderful program, if done right and has 100% support from all staff AND ALL SHIFTS. (I say that outloud, because this program should not be just a daytime thing, it should be happening througout the 24 hours in a day.)

[Jenbean81]

jules1971, on Mar 5 2009, 12:55 PM, said:

Gosh, I can't remember when, but I know I posted something on here last summer because we were going thru the same thing.... and as much as I was 100% in agreement with the program, I had to fight to make it NOT an activity job. We help the restorative aides when ever possible- but usually with the LARGE exercise group- mid morning. That group started with about 8 residents now the group is so big that we have about 30 residents (and of course, you need one staff person for every 4 residents). Its working out well. But I still believe that activities should be activities and restorative should be therapy- to maintain continuity with who is an activity staff and who come is the restorative aide- makes for less confusion for the residents. Good luck. Its a wonderful program, if done right and has 100% support from all staff AND ALL SHIFTS. (I say that outloud, because this program should not be just a daytime thing, it should be happening througout the 24 hours in a day.)

So do you just do exercise groups with restorative or are there other things involved? From what I understand administration wants to merge activities and restorative together as 1 department.

[jules1971]

Jenbean81, on Mar 5 2009, 04:20 PM, said:

So do you just do exercise groups with restorative or are there other things involved? From what I understand administration wants to merge activities and restorative together as 1 department.

If you merge things together only one group can get the credit... you know what I mean? So if you normally had a fun & fit group that was a morning activity and now you have a fitness class WITH restorative YOU can only count/document/ take credit for the residents who aren't members of restorative. So lets say you have a total of 20 residents in the exercise group BUT 15 of those people (who normally came to your exercise group) are a part of restorative, you cannot count those 15 people as attending an "activity" you can only count the 5 residents who aren't a part of the restorative group. Do I make sense?
Since I had to cut back on staffing and hours we now run our fun & fit group with the resorative people and take credit for the ones who are not in restorative. When we did seperate groups (one fun & fit and restorative did an exercise group as well) WE, activity staff, logged into the restorative book to mark who was at OUR fun & fit. It helps to go to other facilities and see how they run their restorative program and to see how much invovlement activity staff takes into account. If run correctly, it is a wonderful program.

[bigchris]

I like what Jules had to say.....

I was in charge of this at another facility and I can tell you that it actually makes everything easier in my opinion.


1) Restorative is a nursing based program that incorporates many of the aspects that we do already (ROM, Exercise, ETC.) so it always helps to have someone helping in a groups situation.


2) Remember that each Restorative "aide" (Which can be almost everyone in the facility.) can engage 4 residents each. Once again, they can help you plus 4 of thier residents.

3) Since restorative is a "fairly" young methodology, you can get creative with what you do. For instance, I use part of my Morning Stretch to address restorative needs. Then the other residents follow suit, because it is Therapy not Exercise.



Hope this helps,


Chris

jules1971, on Mar 9 2009, 08:31 AM, said:

If you merge things together only one group can get the credit... you know what I mean? So if you normally had a fun & fit group that was a morning activity and now you have a fitness class WITH restorative YOU can only count/document/ take credit for the residents who aren't members of restorative. So lets say you have a total of 20 residents in the exercise group BUT 15 of those people (who normally came to your exercise group) are a part of restorative, you cannot count those 15 people as attending an "activity" you can only count the 5 residents who aren't a part of the restorative group. Do I make sense?
Since I had to cut back on staffing and hours we now run our fun & fit group with the resorative people and take credit for the ones who are not in restorative. When we did seperate groups (one fun & fit and restorative did an exercise group as well) WE, activity staff, logged into the restorative book to mark who was at OUR fun & fit. It helps to go to other facilities and see how they run their restorative program and to see how much invovlement activity staff takes into account. If run correctly, it is a wonderful program.

[HereCant73]

If they are not speyed they will fall in love and have lots of babies