Randy

Hey there Debber! I bet it ain't easy being green. :idea: 8-)

Thank you both for the advice. I can't say enough how good it is to be in contact with others who know the ropes. I will try to slow down a bit. It's hard for me because my situation is dealing with the disabled. Many of them are young yet and have so much potential. That's what drives me. They all want to be creative and branch out. And hardly anyone ever enables them to. When I give my 110 - 150% it's not for management or to get a raise(ha!) - It's for them. They give back to me far more than what I put in. I suppose that's what I have to keep in mind. As far as our dietary dept. - we know - but they haven't quite got used to the idea that they are to help with programs. I'd say their the only dept. here still in the dark ages. Everyone complains to my boss about the situation. Even she complains about it. But she's the program director. Not the administrator. I don't understand it all. I will try the idea of time study. I don't know what good it will do. The only answer we get these days is that money's short. And it is. Our lovely state of Ohio is in a fine mess. Worse than CA I think. Our state government is about as good money as our dietary dept. is with their job. Anyway - I'm rambling now. Thanks again.

Sorry - I just realized I spelled your name wrong. Kerrie.

Kerry, I found a few things related online. I hope something here helps. On a couple pages you have to scroll down and scan the pictures. VBS ideas frog nirvana herb farm frogstore I hope these work.

Okay - here it is. I work in an ICF/MRDD facility. That means Intermediate Care Facility for the Mentally retarded and/or developmentally disabled. Here we have different State mandated programs to teach Daily Living skills. As an AD I have to provide home and outing activities for our 50 Residents. I have two full timers and a part timer working directly for me. But under our newest rules, I have to get our people out once a week on an outing. This took a lot of work to acheive and still provide home activities but, we did it. Now the state comes in and starts telling our facilities and types like ours that all these people must be packing their own lunches for work the next day. Our programming department has been going crazy trying to put this in place and now - they want my staff in there as well to pack lunches. As if we don't have enough responsibilities. If we were a group home - it wouldn't be a big deal. But I am also supposed to run an afternoon activity at that time. Not to mention that in the morning we have an outing, in the evening we have an outing and another event in house. Then I deal with recreation fund monies and reports and documentation and applications for Special Olympics and Camp and Trips and so on and so on and so on. This is just some of the day in and day out. Not to mention meetings and inservices and questions and residents who constantly need your attention. So I suppose my question is - when does this stop? When do people realize you can't do it all? I try - really I do. I work 10 and 12 hours a day at work and 2 to 3 at home and I dream about it too. My only respite is a few weekends here and there. So how does my department tactfully help other departments understand all we do without them working a week in our department? Sometimes I think they believe it all comes together by magic and I just sit back and enjoy having fun all day. Does anyone have this experience? And are there any other AD's working with MR/DD online who can relate to me?

Miguel, Thank you. Great suggestions. I will definitely use them!

Pat and Gina, Hello and thanks for all of your ideas and support. I didn't think it would come so fast. I really appreciate it. Tonight, I just met with some of our residents and they are really excited about getting the newsletter going. So these ideas of yours will really help. Yes - working with the disabled can be a challenge but I enjoy it immensly. They are the best people I've ever known. My problem here is that I don't know if there are too many resources specifically for my area of activities. I see a lot of you work soley with seniors. But some of the people I work with are a younger crowd who would be bored with senior activities. Only a few of our residents are above 60. So I have to keep things hopping. If any of you know resources for activities for the disabled - I am always on the lookout. Not that I don't do well. I think our program is ahead of a lot of things I've seen. Right now we have a new group that started about 3 months ago called Creation Crew. They get together and come up with ideas of things to create. Currently they are making a video of commercial spoofs, writing a book and now working on the newsletter idea. They have great insight and give most of the input themselves. It is really taking off. Anyway, thanks again. Gina, I will e-mail you soon. Thanks.

Hello Everyone!! I am an Activity Director in Ohio in the USA. I just joined and am already getting a lot of useful information from this wesite. Our residents are physically and/or mentally disabled. It is a 50 bed facility and I have many challenges. Like funding for one. Our monies have been cut dramatically and I seem to be working on a shoestring budget. But I still manage to meet the requirements for the state. Yet when I came into this - I did not want to just meet requirements. That's why I have begun plenty of wonderfully off the wall things ( I think ) that our resident's just love. I have lots of ideas that I would like to share and I would like to gleam from anyone with unique ideas as well. Our people range from early twenties to mid seventies. Most in the 40s and 50s. We are religious based and have Christian themed events sometimes but, certainly we do plenty of other things as well. If anyone has any ideas on putting together a resident newsletter, I'd like to hear them. It's been done in the past here but before I was director and it didn't have much success. I do a calendar of my events but not a newsletter. A lot of the residents want to start one. Anyway, Thanks for reading.