LisaRee

Here's just a few songs that my residents enjoy: Amazing Grace You are my sunshine Bicycle built for two Has anybody seen my gal America Yankee Doodle She'll be comin'round the mountain Give my reguards to broadway How much is that doggie in the window To the person who posted above me, I used the eldersong for awhile and agree with you. What I did was download the same songs from the book, just with some other artist singing. You may not be able to find all of them, but most of the ones I did find were much more upbeat and had some personality instead of being monotone and boring. My residents love it!

I was lucky enough to be able to take the virtual dementia tour myself. I honestly can't say enough about it. What an eye opening experience. After I took the tour I went and bought the materials to do the tour myself and made each of my activity aides go through what some of our residents may experience. A couple of my aides actually cried because they had no idea what it must be like and it made them realize why someone would yell out "HELP ME!" over and over. That's exactly what I was saying during the tour...I need some help, I have no idea what's going on! Please don't ever miss the opportunity to go through the virtual dementia tour!

I can tell you how things are at my facility...We have a skilled unit and those patients are not allowed to go out unless they have a Dr's order. It was always explained to me that because of Medicare paying for their stay that they assume if they are well enough to be "out" then they are well enough to be home. There are always exceptions though, like passes for home eval and such. Check on getting Dr's orders for some of your patients to go out. Good Luck!

Try Kenny G...it's very relaxing and soothing

I appreciate the feedback. I'm still alittle frustrated, but I suppose that will pass. Thanks for your input, Chuck. I'm not one to jump ship too quickly so I guess I'll buck up and get over it. Thanks again, LisaRee

I know exactly what you mean! Wow I thought I was they only one who went through things like this. We're constantly going through what you are. I'm lucky enough to have plenty activity aides but I have the same problems with our CNA's and nurses. Right now we're at 97 residents total...that includes our skilled unit. I've often wondered exactly how we can give each resident the attention they deserve. Not only that, CNA's will bring down residents with serious behavior problems (yelling, cursing, spitting) and put them in the activity room expecting my AA to stop their groups and attend to this one resident. They just don't understand. I don't have a solution for you, but just know that you're not alone. Good luck!

Hi everyone. It's been a long time since my last post but I have something to get off of my chest. I thought maybe some of you guys would understand my frustration. With the kids being out of school for the summer, alot of staff had asked me about their kids volunteering once or twice a week in our activity dept. I had 5 kids (pre-teen) who were coming once or twice a week, interacting with our residents, helping activity aides out with coffee, juice, helping get residents to and from they're rooms if need be. The residents loved seeing them, especially our alzheimers residents but now I've been told that they can not come because they're a "liability". Well...mmmkay! If our volunteers are a liability, isn't everyone who walks into the building? I tried to explain how I had the parents fill out a parental concent form, but I was told that even that meant nothing "in a court of law" and they could still sue if one of them got hurt. If everyone is a liability then they should put bars on the windows and doors and turn this place into a jail! I tried and tried to explain how much the residents love interacting with these kids, but it didn't work and I was so pissed I was about to cry, so I noded my head ok and left the room. I hated to let the parents know that they couldn't return. I've given this alot of thought and tears but I just don't know what I can do about it. The Powers That Be have spoken and thats all there is to it. I've been here for nearly 10 years now, but after this I'm honestly thinking of turning in my notice. What a crock! I'm just pissed!--LisaRee

National Nursing Home Week has crept up on me! I've been at this for a long time and almost feel like I've ran out of ideas to make the week truly exciting for my residents (and staff) and their families. I really need some new ideas! Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Hiya Brad. Good to have ya here! I've found alot of great ideas from here. I'm sure you will too.

We have a huge family picnic the Saturday before Easter. After the picnic we have an easter egg hunt for the kids. It's always been a huge success. The best part is that I get to dress up in the bunny costume!

I would LOVE to...when and where is it?

I need some help! I have an alzheimers resident who cries every waking hour unless her daughter is right beside her. This has become very annoying and aggervating to our other residents but we can't isolate her in her room. I've tried everything from small groups for her to 1on1's but even with a staff member right beside her she cries...I just need to know exactly how to careplan for her...and other things I can try. Any suggestions would be appreciated--LisaRee

I feel your pain! I had a resident at my facility who did the same thing. She was an alzheimers patient and no matter what we did to stop this behavior, nothing worked. She was amb. which made it worse and our other residents got sick and tired of seeing her with their things. (she carried around everything she picked up and when asked about an item she would always say it was hers and "I've had this for a long time") Another bad thing was that our little horder would become combative at times when staff tried to take things away that didn't belong to her. It was aweful! The only thing we could do was to offer to "trade" items for things that belonged to other residents, also do what we could to keep her from going into other residents rooms. She was even sent to a special behavior facility for two weeks but the bottom line was that this was part of her disease and nothing was going to change it. It had gotten so bad that she was taking her silverware from her meal trays and after trying to stab another resident with a fork she had to be transfered to a facility with a lock-down alzheimers unit. Try the "trade" thing...sometimes it worked for me. Just please remember that the behavior is part of the disease and if possible try to explain this to the other residents. Also when you try to redirect her, do your best to do it in a dignified way. Hope some of this helps--LisaRee

Sure Karen! Email me and I'll give you all the info. Thanks!

Thanks LVN, I appreciate your help! I have to admit, I thought I would get a bigger response than I have, but it's all good...If only 4 or 5 activity directors can donate a few things it will be much more than what they have right now. I got some of my residents to write letters of encouragment yesterday morning and it was great. Reading some of them brought tears to my eyes because some of my folks and their families lost their homes in Katrina and know exactly how it feels. I also took pics with my digital camera and taped their pic to the letters they wrote so they can see who wrote the letter. I promise you, anything you and your residents can do will be greatly appreciated. Have a great Friday! LisaRee

I sure do. Mail me at LisaReeMV@aol and I can give you the address. I talked to some of my residents yesterday afternoon and we're going to do the same thing along with sending whatever I can donate. I also got in touch with another facility here on the coast and they're going to see what they can find too. Later today I'll call other facilities and get this ball rolling all over the coast. If it works out like it should this facility who desperately needs donations should have packages rolling in soon. I sure hope so. Talking with the activity director of the sister facility that flooded made me so thankful of the things that I have and I know for a fact there is somthing that I can do even from houndreds of miles away. I think that as activity professionals we all deal with the same issues and are in this profession because we truly love what we do and love our residents. Lets do what we can for these people no matter how far we are from them. Afterall, we do have alot in common.

Hi everyone. I had posted a couple weeks ago asking about our duties as activity directors during hurricanes. After having gone through Katrina here in Mississippi I feel like there has to be something I can do to give back to people who helped us. Luckily we missed Gustov and Ike. I'd like for us to pick one nursing home that was affected by Ike and maybe donate materials for their activity department. Surely if we group together we can come up with things to donate to an activity department who lost things. (Maybe materials that we don't use anymore, craft kits, games...anything!) Anyone interested in participating, please contact me at LisaReeMV@aol.com or if you are in Texas and were affected by Ike and have a need for activity materials. Thanks--LisaRee

I appreciate the feed-back. We too have to board up windows and thank goodness we don't have to evacuate. I make sure to pay close attention to the tropic updates two or three times a day. We're allowed to bring immediate family with us and I have to give credit to my activity aides who worked with residents and some of our staffs children at the same time. Alot of our residents are low functioning right now so the least little thing can set them off. My aides are AWESOME and so are all staff who are here when we need them. Turtle, I feel for you being in Florida and wish there were something I could do just incase you do get Ike. For all we know, we both may get it. All in all, from the responses, I can see that we're all a very dedicated bunch of A.D.'s to do what we do during these storms. Either that or just plain crazy! (I'm alittle of both)

I'm in Gulfport Mississippi and was just wondering if what I do during hurricanes is the same as other directors. We were lucky enough to get past Gustov this time with only tropical winds, but Katrina tore us apart down here a few years ago. We're on very high ground and didn't have to evacuate but I'm wondering what some of the nursing homes in do in case of storms.-- LisaRee

You're right..it amazes me how something so simple can be so great. My residents loved fly ball so I would imagine they'd love the noodle thing too. I'll try it.

I tried this and it's GREAT! My residents really loved it. I even posted some pics in the Gallery of my folks enjoying it...go see them!--LisaRee