bigchris

A no fail program tool in my facility for the holidays is music and food. In many demntia residents, music never leaves and it provides comfort and joy (comfort and joy! ) to them. One of the things I do when my demntia folks get agitated is sing to them. I can't carry a tune in a bucket, but they have those lyrics ingrained in ther mind. THat, in connection with cookies, ham, spices, gingerbread, etc. is a great tool. BC

Cathyincayman, Do you need any assistants? I don't mind sand in my shoes!!!!

Does anyone have an effective form to interview residents for activities? I have several and I would be willing to swap. I am looking into integrating all of the new regs, and the interview is the first step. I want to see if anyone is doing something new and innovative..... Let me know!! bigchris

We have had a lot of success with Scene it games and PowerPoint. We have a projector so it works.

At my facility, OQ is basically a mock survey for our department and the entire facility. Since we have the new regs, I am trying to add a little, piece by piece, so that we can integrate the other departments in a mode that can be documented when they participate in activities. We also cover the F tags and any other "big" issues that may arise during the qtr. E.G- Communication, interference with programming, etc.

As I mentioned earlier, we frequently asked our residents and found out that here are the top 3 items for Christmas.... 1) Candy/Cookies 2) Picture frames 3) Game books. Hope this helps. BC

Check with your local NH agency or association. They should be able to give you a hand.

One os the things that I have found I can do pretty well is beg. So one of the most successful fundraisers I have conducted is the silent auction. In the past 3 years, I have raised 12,000 buckaroos.

It should also be noted that the Care Plan serves many different uses. 1) It documents all progress and loss for backup and direction to those who may come in and not know the resident. 2)It can point out the good things that are happening for the resident, it doesn't need to be P/G/S all of the time, it can point out progress that your resident is making. 3) It is making a movement (especially in activities) toward a "person centered", less medical model. Bigchris

I won't tell you where to download music because, I do not want to risk being one of the 8,000 people indicted by the FBI this year! But, I will tell you what we use for our low function and slower moving residents. For chair exercise, we use a lot of 50's and 60's that have a medium tempo beat, as we stress that every part of the body gets exercise, including the lungs and mout while singing! For slower movement, I actually use classical and new age like Enya. The different notes make for smooth transition. BC

We have an arts and crafts class each week and a few residents who craft on thier own. We have a craft show at Christmas and several art shows through the year. Rather than concentrate on selling the actual art at the facility, I "commision" the residents to paint theme pictures for our auction. This has been more beneficial for sales, as we take time to describe the artist, show pictures and generate money that would be lost if we just "sold" it. We dote on the resident and make sure that everyone knows that the item sold for mucho money and it generates energy for the entire process. Hope this helps. BC

I think she is looking for the actual items that we all get for gifts. I do a mixture of the items listed but I am stumped at what to get for some of my folks. I am in the process now of asking around and trying to come up with some ideas. I have 400 beds, so it will be tough. BC

Linda, I use Publisher by Microsoft. Basically, it is dummy proof and it has a large selection of Clip art and it is easy to import from other Microsoft applications. bigchris

We started this process 4 years ago and it petered off. Now I am bringing it bakc with a little more caution. You know, when we go to hear about Eden, Culturechange, etc. We get excited and jump in. It is almost always a bad thing. Let em tell you what I am doing and then you can decide. The first thing is gathering information about all of the elements, from the residents. When we first started, we relied heavily on the staff, if you don't do that the right way it will crash, and it did. So now I don't worry about staff (yes I know I should). My first project will be an in house pet therapy program. It will involve the floors directly and we are heavily staffed with volunteers. I have a large plan for other projects, but I am sold on pets since my animals have come in. If you would like more, just drop me a line at bigchris1974@hotmail.com I can fill you in.

Kevin, Some facilities that I have visited have a bonafide smke break. The problem here is 3 fold 1) It is counted as an actual activity for the residents 2) It enables residents to smoke, rather than deter 3) It takes staff from the majority of the residents to cater to the few. My facility went smoke free, which means that the facility has no obligation to provide for NEW residents who come in and want to smoke. We have had some issues with burning and we have purchased aprons for them, but in the majority we do not have a problem. There are many resources to pull from and this was the direction that we decided to go, you may choose differently. BC

I use two different forms of participation log for my residents. In the chart, we use a form that indicates past and current participation in events that the resident likes (D) and we also have a master list for the floor that the resident is on. This makes it easier when the state surveyor walks in....

Why don't you get puppets or a computer to talk for you?!?!?!? Making a script does not make it professional, it makes it sterile! Care plans are a chance for the family to interact with the staff in a (somewhat) casual setting. Why would you add more stiffness to it????? Tell your administrator to contact me, I will talk to him/her.... chrisl@christian-city.org

DO you have an activity association through the Nursing home association? If not, try there... If so, join that. Remember, a lot of nursing home employees get burned out. SO meetings don't always need to be stuffy and businesslike. GO out and have some fun, relax. BC

PAT, I hope you are the one that e mailed me, if not; let me know and I will send my reply. chrisl@christian-city.org

I will try to sort some of this out as your message was a little shaky. As, for medicare you have 5 days for the initial review and then you need to have something in the chart. To eliminate some of the pressure for my staff, I created a simple checklist for our residents since thier average stay is only 23 days. This way, it is easier to process the resident initially. If the resident stays for 14 days, we transfer that resident into a "long term" mode. Then we process the regular paperwork depending on the prognosis for stay. ON restorative... You CANNOT claim both therapy and or Activities. Restorative is in a gray area, that is technically nursing. We can conduct restorative (4 residents each staff) and document. And if resto is the only thing the resident participates in, we can document that in the informal notes. But we cannot claim credit in multiple departments. Hope this helps. BC

Toonie, I speak several times around GA and some of the topics that I talk about are: Creativity, the importance of Resident Council, avoiding burnout, activities for alzheimers and how to get positive press for your activities. Hope this helps. Chris

I had an article posted about raising bingo prizes instead of money. LEt me know if you need it. Also, we have a Fair each October, that raised $15,000. I am also doing smaller events that raise a few thousand each time. Cookouts, Barbecues, etc.

Georgia does.

What about hand washing and grooming followed by a coffee and dessert discussion.

We have several parties, most include the traditional foods and entertainment. I have 40 trees so it is a gala when we light them, so that is a good thing to celebrate as well.