Residents Mail

[Guest Guest_Darlene]

Hello all,

 

I am wondering who does the delivery of residents mail and forwarding of mail in your facilities? I started in a LTC facility 2 months ago and we are so busy , and find the receptionist often reading a magazine, why can't she forward the mail. I need prooof it isn't our job if it isn't.

 

Thank you

[gina 2]

Hi Darlene,

I totally agree with you that if your receptionist is sitting and reading magizenes,she probably has time to sort and pass the mail. :-P

But,in all the facililties I've worked at the Activity department has always done

this task, along with many other tasks that aren't really "activity related"lol!

but what we do to turn this into our advantage is sit and talk for 10-15 minutes with our residents that we bring mail to and it then can be used for a room visit (if that resident happens to be on our room visit program).So try to turn a negative into a positive!!! :-) Have fun! gina

[Stacy 0]

As far as forwarding mail, it should be the receptionist. I should know, I was one. And let me tell you, it sure was on the boring side. But in the facilities that I have been in, it has been the same way.

 

Delivering the mail is usually done by most activity departments. I am fortunate to have the CNA's delivery it where I'm at. And believe me, I'm not complaining.

 

Stacy

[Louise 0]

In my facility the mail is totally taken care of by the receptionists, as it should be in my opinion. There are two shifts and they overlap by one hour....the mail is delivered in that time.

[MaryADC 0]

Darlene,

In all the facilties I have worked in it was Activities job to deliver the mail & morning Newspapers in fact we had to keep forms in our office giving us permission to open and read the mail to residents who were unable to do that. The forwarding of mail was usually done by the office except for the residents who needed help writing. Then guess who? You got it. Activities had the pleasure. I tried to have a group at least once a week so we could help several residents repond to correspondence. Of course a lot of our residents didn't have stationary or cards either. We were fortunate at one facility I worked at where our local drug store donated old stock stationary and cards to us and we filed the cards and note cards under the appropiate occasions.Sorry this isn't what you wanted to hear but like in the response from Gina. Turn it into an activity! Blessings, Mary

[Pennie 26]

Hi,

When the mail come in the receptionist sorts the mail & s/he puts the mail in all of the dept heads boxes. As for the res. mail she would call the activity office to let us know it was in.

A volunteer resident delievers the mail. This job was one all of the res wanted to do. You can 1 of 2 things to help the volunteer deleiver it: 1. Go thru the mail & write that res. room # on it

2. Give the res. volunteer a rooming list of all res. w/ room # on the list.

The res. volunteer would read the letters to the res. if they unable to or ask them to.

Remember to have a Privacy Paper filed w/res showing it is OK for act staff &/or volunteer to do this.

As for mail foward or returned to sender, the act staff would do this. If we did not have an address to foward it to, or we wanted to foward to family member d/t res, passed away etc.. This was taken to accounting for them to put address on.

I like my dept getting the mail so that we could see who was getting mail & who was not. This way we knew which alert res may not be getting cards etc.. Usually you can find a volunteer to maybe send them cards on holidays etc.. Prefect job for someone who wants to volunteer but doesn't have the time to come to the facility.

[Guest Pat8231]

Wow a hot topic for sure. Where I use to work (120 bed SNF) the receptionist sorted the mail. A resident volunteer picked up the resident mail and distributed it. If the resident was unable to deliver the mail activities did it for her. We also delivered packages and flowers. I think that the problem I am seeing at your facility isn't who does what but the fact the the receptionist is lazy and expects activities to do her work. Talk with your administrator about this. If she is sitting doing nothing maybe it's about time someone spoke up. Just my opinion. Pat 8-)

[Guest Guest_Darlene]

Thank you all for your postings, I think some might have misunderstood, I don't mind delivering and reading the resident mail to them, it is the stuff that their POA is supposed to get that needs to be forwarded that we don't have the time to sidt and do.

[Guest Noel]

I am the activity director/Ass't Social Service Director at a 53 bed facility. In our facility the administrator actually picks up the mail as we only have a part time secretary. He sorts it for staff and resident mail. The resident mail is given to Social Services. We usually know what mail the residents can have and which should go to the DPOA's. SS delivers the resident mail and the secretary forwards mail to the DPOA's. Only on Saturday's is Activity Staff in charge of the mail and this does at times cause problems as they don't always know what can be given out and what needs to be forwarded. Hope this helps!

[nisice 0]

I wish I has help with the mail too!! They just toss all the mail in my box... staff and residents and i have to sort it and pass it all out!!! Half the time I am not sure if the residents are to get cetain things.. its jsut a daily headache. I have been the AD fro only 2 months , and this is what the old AD did but Maybe on monday i will suggest the resptionist do it since shes never to busy!!

[Guest Guest]

I work in an assisted living community, and it is the receptionists job to forward all mail to POA's. She simply keeps mailing labels of those residents that need things forwarded and takes care of it herself. If you have too many people involved in that sort of thing it tends to get confusing.

[Guest Pat8231]

Hi, Where I use to work (still unemployed) the receptionist sorted the mail, took out mail for the residents who were still in the SNF. Marked return to sender if there was no current forwarding address on file and if there was just simply put the forwarding address on the envelope. All the data was in the computer so it was easy to look up. Then the mail that was for staff she just put in their boxes which was for mail, memo's etc. I did reception at this SNF and that was a requirment of the position. Rather simple so I think that receptionist is lazy and not doing her job. If she is lazy in other areas of her position then she is just following what was done in the past. Better have a chat with someone.

Pat8231 8-)

[dawn 0]

In my facility activities does deliver the mail to the resident but i also count it as a one on one if they don't come to group activities. this is ALSO A GOOD WAY TO RECALL THE PASS WITH A FEW OF THEM. however the reception desk does the fowarding of the mail of resident who are no longer at the facility.

[Rosa 0]

Hi there in the facility where i work it is the responsibility of the Activity Director or activity staff to pass out mail and also do it within 24 hrs. from the time the mail is recieved...

[mashonda 0]

At my facility, the Act. Dept. is responsible for delivering mail. Our receptionist puts the mail in our box and we are to deliver it within 24 hours unopened. I also have my AA's use this as a method of their 1:1's if someone gets mail that is bedbound. They read the mail to them and talk to them. We also receive free newspapers daily that a local funeral home sponsers. The residents love it. We also pass the papers to residents. We keep one for the activity dept. which is also used for 1:1's and various activities.

[Miguel 4]

Well I like to have my Acitivities staff deliver the mail only because we can utilize that contact time to see how they are doing for those who do not participate in Activities. Sometimes also with some residents you need to either open the mail or they may need the staff to read it. This can be good for a 1:1 Time, sit and discuss who the person is that sent the mail. If you merely have the receptionist forward the mail it may just get thrown in the residents room and not read.... ~`Miguel`~

[Diana 0]

I think what is also important to mention is that not only do we work for the residents by passing out the mail, providing activities. We also work alongside other employees who we can utilize to assist us even for small things, like pass out mail. While on maternity leave, the receptionist passed out mail every chance she got - she enjoyed getting away from the phones! the better we treat other employees, the more they will help out, even in their spare time!