ActivityGirl99

I am a director on a secure unit, I have 44 beds, right now I have 38 residents. I have 3 dinning rooms and so I also cannot start right after meals with a group activity however my residents are just about all late stage so we do "normalization activities". The ladies help with wiping off the tables, being suppurvised, they put on table cloths on lady loves to sweep, so I got her a cordless sweeper. Also the men want to "get back to work" so on good days we go out into the courtyard and look for things that need to be fixed. This keeps them activie untill 2:00 activities start. Then we do something physical to cut down on sundowning. We love balloon toss, my residents will play that for hours if you dont stop them, we have walking clubs, parachute games. The key is you have to be having a great time and then they will. Also I read a study not too long ago that in the nice months being outside in the sun between the hours of 10:00am-11:00am will help resident with sundowning, I have been trying this for a while now, it worked with some people but they are all differet you know.

I usually split my groups up so that they are very small, have 2-3 art clubs with just a few residents at any time that way you can do cuing or hand over hand help, or mirroring. each aactivity lasts 15-30 mins but most of my residents are not going to do something for 30 mins.