resident shopping/mail

[Guest em]

Hi! I just got certified as an AD and I have a couple of questions. First, when it comes to the resident shopping I have always been under the impression that it is the social worker's responsibilty as well as the handing out of and the forwarding of mail. I have worked in this NH before I became the AD. I was actually a therapy tech. while doing that the social worker has always taken care of those tasks. Since, I have become the AD I feel as though these tasks have somehow are another been pushed upon me. Our old social worker is no longer there. I find myself in a very difficult situation because in this facility there is a lot going on and I feel like when I voice my concerns they are simply ignored. Any advice would be helpful and I would appreciate any insight I can get. One more question before I go is there a ratio of residents to how many people work in the actvities department. I have plenty more questions but, these are a good start. Thank you, EM

[Guest Tinki]

Hello em,

 

I have worked in AL mostly and was always responsible for groceries - AL do not usually employee social workers so, it falls on the AD. But in my facilities everyone tried to help out on that! And the residents got there own mail or the family members did it for them!

 

Karen

[Stacy 0]

The home I work in, the SS department is mainly responsible for getting personal items for the residents. There are occaisions that I will go out, but mainly because I was planning on shopping for the department, so then I would pick up some resident's items. As far as mail, we just recently aquired this task. It use to be the CNA's would pass it out. Then they would find mail behind the nurses station desk that wasn't passed out for over a month. We do it now, I was hesitant to take the responsiblity, but it has worked out fine.

 

Stacy

[Pennie 26]

Hello,

All of the facilities I have worked at or consulted at the mail delivery were activities job. I would get the mail sort it out then I had a volunteer resident deliver the mail to the other res. & she would read letters etc. to those res. that requested it or was unable to do so. Just be sure that the volunteer res. knows to ask permission or repeat their request before reading/opening their mail. You the AD should make notes in charts to back up that res. want their read mail to them, why & that another res. is doing this task. Be sure that you have also charted that the res. that volunteers has requested to be a volunteer etc. As far as forwarding mail I always went to the accounting office because they usually had the forwarding address & forward mail from there. On weekends my staff would get the mail & have volunteer deliver it & keep rest in my office until Monday. I really didn't mind this job.

As far as going to the store we tried to get family members to do but not all res. have family etc. So what I did was get a volunteer (in my case a family member) & she would go to the store for the res. once a month. I put the trip on my calendar announcing that (Persons name) will be going to (store name) at (time) for res. The res. knew to bring in their money & list to my office prior to the time of my volunteer going. After the volunteer went to the store she would also take items to the res. along w/ their recite & change. This worked out well for us because res. knew that if they missed out then it would be next month before they could get anything from the store (unless an outing was planned).

As far as a ration I have never seen it written anywhere. There are no state or federal regs on this. I wish there were it would really help us out & be fair to our residents. If you are finding it hard to get all of your work done & doing all of the activities & 1:1's by yourself don't take your work home. Speak to the Admin about getting you assistance. By taking work home & getting all of your work done then as far as Admin is concerned there is no problem because you are getting everything done. So therefore no ass't is needed. Sometimes you have to take a hit by State to get your point across that help is needed. Actually the Admin should really be concern about activities since the new res. have passed. Use them to your advantage make a list of all the things you do in a day & what needs to be done show how it is not possible for you to do it all without help.

Sorry so long I hope what I have written makes sense to you. My mind works faster than my typing. Be sure to ask your questions we will all help out best that we can. Pennie

[Mandyatscr 0]

At our facility Activities is in charge of getting, reading and sending resident mail. Most of our residents use our monthly shopping trip to get any items they need but if they arent on the list to go and its something small activities will pick it up but only during that trip. Our social worker picks up the other items.

[Guest Guest]

Hey There,

As far as mail goes, like others it is the Activity Departments responcability. We use this as one on one time. Shopping is done by families or the Social Servicies Department with the exception of if we go shopping as an activity then the resident does their own. BTW I am the AD for a long term facility 120 beds in Fl.

Tracy

[mashonda 0]

work in a NH as the AD and my dept. delivers the resident's mail. but, we use this an opportunity to involve volunteers and other residents. i bet there is one or two residents that are higher functioning at your facility that would love to deliver mail. we have newspapers delivered to our facility daily that a church group has paid the subscription for and there is one res. that actually gets upset if one of my assistants passes out the newspapers. so this was designated as his task.

 

although depending on your state, you might want to make a careplan for that particular resident stating that they are volunteering and agree to do so, and that activities is not forcing him to do it. we may also have other staff members deleiver and read mail to residents.

 

as far as res. shopping, we have two ways of doing this. the act. dept. goes res. shopping once a week at wal-mart. (it's best to have one location or some res. will have you going all over town.) we only go on fridays. outside of that day, if they need something, they will either have to wait until the next week, or we ask the family to bring it in. if it's something urgent, their social worker will go. i will say this though, other staff are pretty good about getting things for other dept. if they are already going to wal-mart. for ex. if the SW is going to wal-mart on thurs. we will ask her if she will get the res. shopping list items on that day so we won't have to go on friday.

 

as far as a ratio, i'm not familiar with their being a reg. regarding activity staff ratio and residents. however, market your facility and recruit volunteers, they can really be life savers. some of your best volunteers can also be FAMILY MEMBERS!

 

hope this helps.

[turtle 0]

Hi! It is the responsibility of the activity department to deliver mail in our 173 bed facility. The mail is sorted by unit and each activity leader is responsible for delivering the mail to their assigned residents. This makes great 1:1 time. You can always reminisce about a family member or even take an imagainary shopping spree through one of those catalogs my residents always seem to be getting. We keep a record of who recieves mail each day just as a backup. This has come in handy when a family member wants to know if a particular piece of mail has arrived. Delivering mail only takes a few minutes and it really brightens the residents' days and isn't that what activities is all about? As far as shopping, I have an activity leader who goes shopping every other week. The residents know when she is going and always have their lists to her on time. We have worked with our local Wal-mart and they know when we are coming. They always have a extra cashier available to open a register just for us when we shop since everyone's orders have to be rung up seperately. This speeds up our check out time and keeps other customers from getting impatint. Keep up the wonderful job you all do and remember why we do what we do-for the residents! :-)