OceanGuy23

Hi I would purchase arts and crafts supplies, sensory stimulation items for in-room visits, games, a nice organizational activity cart, and some educational books or videos. I love that annual luau party idea. HOW FUN. Not only are the residents having a blast but your getting families involved too by having them come in and join in the fun. Great idea. Good luck with the party again this year. OceanGuy23/ActivityMan

Hi all When I do men oriented activities there is always a different activity going on for the ladies at the same time in a different place. Our ladies like to have this time together for themselves and they do an activity and my men enjoy our time together. I would say it would be fine though if a lady joined us men or vice versa but usually they get busy with their designated activities. It is always wise to have a separate activity for the ladies when having men's time this way no one will get left out and everyone is happy. OceanGuy23/ActivityMan

Hey Turtle I really like your activity idea for father's day. Sounds like fun and something a man would love. Pizza and a movie. I know I do lol. Your going with a good theme for a movie, men love anything action but especially western. I like your whole scene atmosphere and also the root beer bottles. Very nice. I would love to know how it turns out. OceanGuy23

Hi Chris Hang in there and be encouraged. I feel for you though because it is always hard to lose an assistant because now you get double the work load. Hopefully you will be able to hire someone soon to fill in the gap. Be positive and look on the bright side. You are an AD because of your love for your residents and always think about your residents and the joy they bring you. I always look at that aspect and this always makes me feel better and ready to start a new day. OceanGuy23/ActivityMan

Heyyyy Miguel How great to hear from you. Thanks for replying to my post. Thanks for the encouragement in your post and I will try my hardest to be an awesome activity director. I know I will because I do think outside the box and have creative ideas but greatest of all I love working in this field and love my residents so I think I would fit in any skilled nursing facility/LTC or Assisted Living Facility. I am so excited to have found this site and will keep posting. I hope to talk to you more Miguel, that would be awesome so we could trade ideas and I really want to know about your monthly calenders. I always love seeing other AD calenders for help. Do keep in touch, I know I will. See ya. Kevin, OceanGuy23

Hi all I was just curious what everyone was doing to celebrate Father's Day with your male residents since it is coming up. OceanGuy23

What is your name? Kevin What is your occupation? I currently work as an activities assistant in a long term care facility in the Central Valley in California, soon to be an Activity Director in a couple months. What are you listening to right now? Christian music radio station 88.3 FM What was the last thing you ate? Hamburger and fries Do you wish on stars? no, not really If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Blue How is the weather right now? Right now it is dark out, but we're having warm weather in the Valley now Last person you spoke to on the phone? My good friend from church How old are you today? 23 Favorite drink? Carmel Frappuchino from Starbucks or Pepsi Favorite sport(s) to watch? Baseball Have you ever dyed your hair? I only get my tips blonde Do you wear contacts or glasses? No Pets? I dog, a daschund, she's a part of the family Favorite Month? I would have to say December Favorite Food? Kentucky Fried Chicken or Chinese food What was the last movie you watched? It's been awhile since I've seen a movie Favorite day of the Year? Christmas Fall or Spring? Fall When was the last time you cried? When one of my resident's passed away What did you do last night? Relaxed and watched t.v. What Inspires you? My residents and working in activities in long term care What are you afraid of? snakes Favorite car? Toyota Corolla or Honda Civic Favorite Dog breed? Daschound or Chihuaha How many years at your current job? I have worked at the same facility as an activities assistant for six years, next month How many states have you lived in? just one, California How many cities/towns have you lived in? just one town, Turlock

I live in California Trixie and I know, wouldn't it be great if every activity department could have an unlimited budget. Wowwww. HOW COOL. Heavenstar has a very good idea about just making your own postcards. If it came to the point where you couldn't find postcard at the stores your looking at just make your own. I think the residents would actually like that as an art project for themselves because they can create their own, unique postcards just the way they like. Sounds like fun. I'm for this idea too. Good luck. OceanGuy23/ActivityMan

Hi Katie What you said about ideas for a resident's individualized activities is very nice. Reinforcing those past activities currently is great. This is why the initial activity assessment is so vital because we get the residents past and current hobbies and a good background of the resident. Always a good thing to go back and check those assessments. As for learning a new language I know that is not easy. I actually speak Spanish and Portuguese fluently so that is a blessing especially for our residents who speak those languages. I can easily communicate with them but I know how difficult it is to have a resident who speaks a language and you aren't able to speak their native language. LTC facilities are becoming more and more culturally diverse so it is good to know a second language and hopefully it can come in handy. I would think it would be just fine if you document that a resident who may be from a different country speaks and understands English then I don't see where State should have a problem because you are documenting that they speak English. Hang in there MBKEMP and don't let this get you down. Be encouraged. Again good ideas Katie. OceanGuy23/ActivityMan

Hi Trixiedg That sounds like such a cute idea to have a pen pal program. I didn't even know there was one. How nice. Would you mind telling me more about it. Thanks for that website also. Thanks. Ps. Remember all the good that you are doing for your residents. You are a blessing but greatest of all our residents are a joy and blessing for us. This is why I know I wouldn't do any other job, because of my love for the residents and knowing I am touching lives day in and day out. OceanGuy23/ActivityMan

Hi all Can anyone tell me where I can get a really good resource book for doing care plans. Just thought I would get some opinions. Thanks. OceanGuy23

Hey Chris, Good luck with state. Im sure everything will turn out good. Be encouraged. OceanGuy23

Hi Mel, I love your sensory ideas. Very nice sensory cart. When I do my in-room visits I do a lot of tactile therapy by having the residents feel certain textures of materials, like silk or felt, for example and then I have them tell me how the materials feel. I also massage our residents hands and arms with lotion or I paint our ladies nails. I also enjoy reading "Chicken Soup" book stories because of their encouragement and comfort to our residents and other times I show picture books to our residents with themes I know they will love, for example, babies, children, animals, scenic pictures, and so forth. Taking music to the rooms is always a plus too. OceanGuy23

Hey Miguel, Great decision you made regarding this issue. I would not feel comfortable either with someone coming off the streets with this background and coming into my nursing facility because lets face it, if their doing court ordered community service they don't have a good reason behind it. We are here to protect our precious residents and to keep them safe. Someone who has committed theft is too great of a risk for our vulnerable residents and should not even step foot in a nursing facility. OceanGuy23

Hey Chris, Very good approach when confronting this sort of situation. Documentation is very important and must be done, especially on res. care plan. I have never experienced this issue although we do have res. who think I am their son or grandson or call me by any other name other than my own name but we've all encountered this in long term care. By the way Chris, I think I read on this site about you and care plans. Can you tell me where I can get a really good care plan resource book. I know there is more than one lol. Thanks. Activities Rocks!! OceanGuy23

Hi I think incorporating as many musical activities for our residents is great. Music can be so soothing and perfect for higher and lower functioning residents. You'd be surprised at how some residents w/alzheimers can react to music, they love it. I think Elvis would be number one, but also country western and gospel songs are favorites. OceanGuy23

On top of Mother's Day and Cinco de Mayo, We also have NNHW to plan. What is everyone doing for this week of fun? Is anyone doing something special to celebrate our resident veterans for Memorial Day?OceanGuy23

We are having a Mother's Day Tea at our nursing facility. What is everyone else doing? I love that poem Pennie. That is so nice. OceanGuy23

Hi Tinki This year for Cinco De Mayo I decorated our nursing facility with red, green, and white balloons and I put donkey pinata centerpieces on the tables in the dining room. We played Mexican picture bingo "lottery" and after bingo I served chips, salsa, and apple cider. I do have to say our residents had a very fun day. OceanGuy23

Hi. Here is a following list that might sound like fun for your male residents. 1. Poker Club, or any card games 2. Dominoes 3. Checkers 4. Sports Trivia 5. Western Movie Night 6. Bowling 7. Horseracing 8. Kickball 9. Balloon Volleyball Competition 10. Bean Bag Toss 11. Gardening 12. Puzzles, word searches, Crosswords 13. Get car magazines and reminisce about res. first car, fixing cars, etc. 14. Basketball 15. Football game and pizza (check with dietary orders) 16. Building model cars, airplanes 17. Coffee, donoughts, and current events from newspaper 18. Painting/drawing, work with clay 19. Do a "fishing" game where you have a fishing pole ( a clothing pin connected to a large stick will do) and get prizes such as stuffed animals and let them fish for those prizes. Put prizes behind something so res. cannot see what their fishing for until they pull out the prize. 20. Go for a nature stroll outside. Hope some of these activity ideas work for your men, I know our male residents at our long term care facility love these ideas. Good luck.

I currently work as an activity assistant in a long term care facility in the Central Valley in California. I was wondering though if anybody can tell me on average how much an AD will make in California. Is where your located in California vital and how about the size of the facility. I will become an AD by the end of this year so I am just curious and I do plan on become NCCAP Certified. Thank you so much. OceanGuy23

Hey Turtle, That sounds like fun that your doing a treasure theme. How cool. What exactly are you going to doing to implement your theme. Your right, this week and any week is about making our residents happy and we in activities are here for them and to make our activities as much fun as possible. A cookout and carnival sound way cool too and so have fun with those ideas too. OceanGuy23

Hey Miguel, How cool that you used to live in Stockton, isn't this a small world, lol. Thank you for getting back to me. You have given me great help, thank you. The 16 week state approved AD course is 48 hours and is held at Millers Place in Modesto, which is a day center for adults during the day and at night opens up to offer this course. It is run through Doctors Medical Center Foundation. I definitely want to take my mepap courses because I know they will come in great handy and I always love to learn more about activities to bring new ideas for my residents. I think I will take mepap online through this site because online classes are awesome if you work full time as I do but you said there is a local instructor so I might do that. I want to become a CTRS in the future but for now I will get all my activity courses done. I am 23 so there is plenty of time lol. I have such a passion and love working in long term care and the residents are such a joy and blessing. I have worked as an AA for five years so its about time I become an AD. My current AD is so encouraging and tells me this is my calling and this is exactly my profession. It is and I love it. Activities are sooooo cool. I will be getting in contact with you and it will definitely be a pleasure getting to talk to you. Thanks again. OceanGuy23

Hi Miguel. Thanks for responding to my post about California Activity guidelines. I live in Turlock, California, which is located in the Central Valley, near Modesto and about a 1 1/2 hour drive to Sacramento. Where are you located in California? I work as an activities assistant in a 99 bed long term care facility in Turlock. The course I am taking in August is 16 weeks and meets once a week. When I complete this course to be a state qualified AD in California can I work in any long term care facility or do some facilities already want you to be nationally certified. Can I take MEPAP 1 in the meantime. Thank you for giving me your contact phone number and I will definitely be calling you for questions. This site is so awesome. Catch ya later. OceanGuy23

Hi. I was wondering what the course MEPAP 1 and 2 is about. Are they only offered online and how many weeks are they. There is so much information to know about being certified. I currently work as an activities assistant in California in long term care which I have done for five years. I will be taking the course to become an activity director in August to be state certified but I would like to be nationally certified. I would also like to know more about California guidelines, it seems every state is different. Can anyone also please give me a preview of what to expect for my state certification course. I am so excited I can't wait. Thank you so much.