Ideas Please!!

[trixiedg 0]

I desperately need some ideas for one of my residents. He yells out oh me or help almost constantly when he is awake. When he is awake, he wanders while he yells out which upsets the whole nursing home. The only thing I have found that works is to put music on for him, park him next to me in the office where he can either hold my hand or be touched the moment he starts yelling out. While this is fine as long as I'm sitting still, but that is not very often for very long. He is alert at times but falls asleep very easily for short periods of time. I tried playing checkers with him but he dozed off after two moves and that was the end of that. It's difficult to have him in any type of group as he disturbs the others and some can be a little rude to him as a result. I am very worried about him as he used to be one of my very alert residents but his Alzheimer's is taking its toll on him now. I would appreciate any suggestions at all, large or small, anything that might help.

[jvpayne 0]

I know this was written a couple years ago but I still think people will click on it with the same questions so here goes...

 

On our Memory Care Unit we have severely progressed Residents with Dementia. We do laundry folding, sorting plastic utensils (disposable for sanitary purposes), Reminisce magazines, recipe books that residents look through or tear out there favorites, old truck ads for our truck lovers, animal therapy (dogs or cats), lots of time outdoors when the weather is nice, puzzles (even if they cant put them together, they can sort by color or shape), pvc pipes to put together and take apart, large plastic nuts and bolts to tinker with, reminisce cards, yahtzee works well, music based activities (rhythm is one of the last skills we lose).

Basically, we conduct a mini history where we have information about the resident's past and then we try and come up with stage appropriate activities that relate to their individual interests and abilities.

Hope this helps,

Jordan

[fawnwhite 0]

Thanks Jordan,

I mimick your advice.  For our residents that severe, I usually try to get a history from family or the individual themselves then I put together a Sensory Stim Kit just for them. Say that person was a hunter before his decline.  I have a nerf gun that shoots soft discs, and I set up a target range or cut various sized holes in a sheet with different point values - they absolutely love it. You can include hunting magazines, photos, of deer, turkey, quail, different pictures of hunting dogs... There's a lot more I could add to this in the way of ideas, but I think the best advice is to custom taylor it to residents interests, instead of trying to fit the resident in to our mold.