Robin 0 Report Share Posted April 4, 2004 Hi I am a AD from Oshawa, Ontario Canada and am new to this site. (love it so far) One of my goals this year is to start up a Family Council. I run the Resident council once a month now and would like more imput from the families of my residents. Does anyone have any ideas on how to do this and was sucessful? I find that only once a year families really respond to special events are only at Christmas time. It's a shame because I really try to imform the families through, flyers placed in statements, large posters signs posted at the entrances, newsletters and monthly calendars are available. I look forward in participating in this AD site and I hope everyone has a great month. ;-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gina 2 Report Share Posted April 5, 2004 Hi Robin, How ya doing today.I just read your post regarding Family Council and I hear ya when you talk about family involvement being limited to "once a year" at Christmas time.At a facility i once worked at we used to hold a free Family Dinner/Family Council night once a month,we would offer the families a nice dinner and then right after dinner we would have Family Council,we also would have different speakers come in to discuss different topics,i.e:Pharmasist to discuss the effects of certain drugs and herbs on seniors,A Dr. to discuss certain topics,a rep.from the local Alzheimers association to discuss signs of Alzheimers,Me(ADC)to discuss the importance of our daily recreation program and its effects on on residents.etc.We had a pretty good turn out 20-30 residents families out of 90-99 residents.anyways,good luck to you.I hope you get a good response in whatever you choose to do. :-) gina Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stacy 0 Report Share Posted April 5, 2004 Robin, I have had the same bad luck as you. We have had family councils and we had the speakers, signs posted, we have even tried Family Fun night where it was a special event that involved families and residents. Then, there was a time that our family forum became a complaint session, so we stopped that. The only success I had with a family council was with my Alzheimer's Unit. We had 20 residents, and about half of the families participates. With this groups we held inservices for families, had vides, and speakers. I feel this worked because it was geared toward a specific population. Good Luck, Hope you find sucess. Stacy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest cindymaybe Report Share Posted April 8, 2004 Hello there, Robin. Here's what I do in my facility. Once a month we pick one resident to have a special dinner with their family, we call it dinner bell. They can invite up to 4 guests. My assistant and I cook and serve the meal, which the family chooses what the meal will be from a menu we give them. ALSO, to get more family participation we hold a family night every other month. This gets a lot of the families to come and see what's going on with their loved one andy upcoming events and what we did since the last family night. We have special entertainment and serve refreshments. We always have the residents involved as well. They will do a karaoke concert, and we have them make little things for the families during craft times, which we present to them at family night. Thsi is a huge thing for us lots of families that we weren't seeing but once a year (Christmas) started coming, and now they are more involved with the residents. A lot of them now assist us on our outings every month. Good-luck in your efforts, Robin. ;-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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