sarahlovesav

Yeah, the nursing home I used to work at did cook book fundraisers and also huge rummage and bake sales:)

I had a guy call me this month saying he sets up a bookstore in your nursing home/community...and like 10% of the proceeds go to the ACT dept. I was thinking, I could set this guy up in our community and turn it into a fundraiser/family night and send out an invitation to all family members in the monthly billing asking them to come check out this book store/book fair and that a proceed will go to the act fund for special resident outings etc. That's an idea:) You can serve punch/cookies...

At one nursing home I worked at in Activities, we did "diversionary activities" for resident's who mainly stayed in their room. We made a cart to wheel to each room specifically with things like dominoes, card games, nail polish and things to do hair and makeup/manicures, puzzles, lotions and things for sensory stimulation. You can add things each day like sweet foods/salty/sour to help resident's identify tastes/textures/smells. I made up little games like throwing a few items in a brown paper sack and having the resident reach their hand down inside and identify each item w/out being able to LOOK and see what the item was:) I had bubbles on the cart and things like that...material or yarn for knitting and working w/ your hands. There are so many things you can do...

What we do in my community are a "family night" each month or every couple of months. We like to include our resident's family members in a special activity. Say, a party or BBQ in the summer. What we did for Thanksgiving is had a Thanksgiving dinner the week before the holiday for our resident's family to join. We had prob close to 300 people show up- it was huge! For Christmas I had my husband get together a brass quintet from his school and come perform. We had a huge "open house" for the resident's family and friends to come- we rented chairs and set them up all over our community and let people come in and out and enjoy refreshments/punch. It was a huge hit!!!!!

One neat idea I enjoyed doing with my resident's as a craft, is teaching them to serve others. We made/decorated cards/ceramics etc to give to children in hospitals and things like that. I want to get together a community service group (my residents) where we make things each month and go give them to sick people in hospitals and orphanages, other nursing homes and such. I think this gives my resident's a huge sense of SELF WORTH and it gives them MEANING!!!!!

Well I joined a little too late to give you any advice, but I did a ton with my resident's. I took them to see Christmas Lights several nights, spent several nights after dinner w/ them decorating Christmas tree's, their doors/rooms, the community..inside and out! I got girl scouts to come help w/ the doors for Christmas. (Careful though, most places have strict fire code rules about the doors...) I took the resident's on a train excursion, to a Christmas play at a theatre downtown, to a jazz band concert downtown, on several scenic drives, to Dairy Queen, Starbucks, Walmart/Target/the mall, I had scouts come in and visit, Christmas carolers. I picked up the phone book and started calling churches in the area and asking their music directors if they could come & sing for us. We had a group almost every single day!!! We had choirs and handbell choirs and carolers, scouts...youth groups...etc. Let's see, what else...of course we did our morning exercise every single day, Bingo/Crafts/Snacks/Music and such. I had a fun time party group come in and we made a Christmas gift shop so the resident's could come and get their Christmas shopping done. That was fun!!! What else did we do...gosh this has been the most crazy month of my life we've done so much- and it's not even over yet. Whew!!!!!!

I agree, I USED to do MK and do not anymore, but I am having a girlfriend of mine hold a MK class for my residents in January. Kinda like a "new year, new you" type of thing;)

The people that drive the van in my community are the maintenance man and I!

My name is Sarah, I am in my 20's. I became an Act Director first when I was only 16 years old & have been in the field often on ever since! I am the ACT Director of an assisted living community here in TN. I'd say we have about 40-50 AL resident's and 17 Dementia/Alzheimer residents. I do not have even ONE assistant and came into the job with NO volunteers!!! I am currently 6 1/2 months pregnant and my husband is going to school full time! So we are so busy:) However, I manage to put in about 50 hours a week - at least lately- I have been working days, nights AND weekends since there is only ONE me to spread around and I want to make sure each and every resident is happy!!!

there is a magazine called "Creative Forecasting" maybe they have something?

I work in TN and make 11$ an hour not certified. I was an Act Director in Arizona a few years back and only made 7.50 an hour. Other Act Directors I knew only made 8$ an hour!!!