spunkybee

I am a certified Act director with 2 years experience managing others. My personal circumstances have changed and i am seeking to relocate anywhere in the South. Please contact me with any questions you may have. i have also 9 additional years of LTC experience.

Greetings from Cincinnati, OH!! I work on the westside of cincinnati, i live in Price Hill. I recently went through a bad divorce from an emotionally and verbally abusive man and after 17 years find myself trying to re-establish myself in an apartment with a dog. I have lived here for 20 years. I am originally from NJ. My dog and i for fun visit in nursing homes on pet visits. I've been in this field for 11 years as an Activity Coordinator and up to last year was an AD. The job i had there was sold and management was pushed out. I found a job that gave me 40 hours and a raise -- but i found that i sorely miss being an AD!! There is really a great joy in creating meaningful activities for people that love it and appreciate you for what you do. Where else can you go to work and make people smile just to make them feel better about themselves? And still learn something in return? This is a "calling" that most people don't understand. It isn't just about the fun and games. that is just an added perk.

Ok - i have a few suggestions. Depending upon the age and type of residents you have you could do an impromptu trivia q & a game. (there are several books and stuff/trivia found online.) make it a contest of sorts and reward them. Do charades - make them laugh and that could make them hungry. Reminiscing is always good. I do a friday evening activity that i do with 5 dice called "high 5". You take a box with you, each resident only gets one turn with 5 rolls per person. The goal is to roll all 6's in 5 turns. It can be done. keep a score board like a wipe on board and write the scores down per person and make it fun. As the person rolls a "6" - remove that die. At the end of 5 rolls, add up their scores. It is a great way to kill time. Good luck finding something!! spunkybee

I'm new here, but i'm responding because i can totally relate. I am in a position in a company that hired a very young CTRS out of college over me. I had left my other position as an AD because of a management changeover. I do the rehab unit paperwork and my regular unit and usually don't have time during the day for a break except for lunch. She is the laziest AD i've ever seen and i was trained by the best. I've been in this field for 11 years and she wasn't even in HS that far back. Yet she claims to know more than i do and feels it her duty to tell me how to do my f'n job. I just went through some very tough crap in the past year and she just doesn't get it. I'm the one that volunteers to work extra hours when it is needed, i'm the one that works the front desk when they need help and other than getting the OT, i still get crap. it sucks and it doesn't really ever change. She is one of those, do as i say not as i do. i'm constantly being put down and it isn't fair as when i wanted to quit, i couldn't because of my divorce last year. fresh wound as recent as the week before Christmas 2007. And now that i'm free to move on, i can't find another freaking job. I am the volunteer coordinator (i get asked to "deal" with all the volunteers). I only took this lousy job because i was promised the AD position and then later told that i wasn't being given it because i hadn't completed college. (yet i had the experience and years of knowledge). I go to the Rehab meetings weekly. I go to the IDT meeting weekly. She comes in late and leaves early. The unit she is supposed to be working on -- hasn't seen her in months. When she is in her office, she is either on her phone or talking to her husband. leaves early or doesn't come in. We had her out the door a few months ago, but she gave them some sad story and they took it and gave her more money and she stayed. And when she did, she announced that "we would have to start picking up more of her duties because she wasn't going to be here as much as she had been." EXCUSE ME?! I'm the one now repremanding the other employees in our department for not doing their jobs at her request. That was the last straw for me. i told her today that she is the boss not me and it needs to be her to do it. Her response was, well if i do that they will fire "X" and i'm not working the weekends and extra nights. (SHE IS AN AD - THAT IS HER JOB!!!). I volunteered to do the extra night and weekends (knowing in the back of my head that it will give me extra time off during the week to get stuff done. plus i'm not planning on staying). So it isn't just you or the company you are working at -- situations suck across the board. What you have to ask yourself is how much are you willing to put up with and how long? It is abuse that we are both dealing with. I've got to have another job lined up before i leave due to health problems. But i am working on it. And it isn't a secret where i work that i'm leaving and why. She knows this and is using it against me. So my problems are temporary. You can do it. hang in there. keep doing your job the way you need to do it. stay under the radar and it will work out. But do know this -- being an AD is a very stressful job, but also very rewarding.