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Activity Ideas for Men


NancyZM

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Hello Everyone,

 

I work in a nursing home where the population is predominantly women and offering programming for the men - or should I say programming for the men that they will attend and participate in - has been challenging.  They enjoy poker night but most other groups we gear towards the men are not as well received.  Does anyone have some suggestions for "fool-proof" men's groups?

 

Thanks for you input,

Nan

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Hi Nan,

We have a "Men's Group" that meets once a month. They have nominated president and vice president within the group. We let them decide on what they want to do for the next month. This month they have picked out a western movie and we will be breaking out the old popcorn machine and making popcorn. We have taken trips to the local Ward Museum (duck history), boardwalk and fishing trips.

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  • 1 month later...

Hi Nan,

We also have a men's group. We've found it was hard to get a group together every month but quarterly seems to work well. We've taken them on boat rides at the local park. They have wheel chair accessible boats. We've also taken them to local high school sports events to cheer on the students. We've had young men come in to talk to them about the differences between their times growing up and theres. We've also had men members of the staff attend meetings to interact with everyone. You could take them out to a big steak dinner. What about hosting a Super Bowl party? Hope it helps! 

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Nan,

 

I think that your problem is a common one. My facility has had good success with having a Men's Club. The club meets about once a month or every other month. We do different things at the club. Our most popular meeting is a luncheon. We order either a sub platter or pizza and beer and play Sinatra music. The guys get to eat, hang out, and visit in a casual atmosphere while being waited on by the staff. 

 

Our second most popular meeting is LCR (left, center, right). It is a dice game with a concept easy to grasp. It is suitable for various levels and it is fun. It can be bought for less than $10 at target or walmart. When possible we have a guy volunteer come in to run the game to keep it even more of a "Men's Club". Staff still stay to monitor and assist as needed.

 

I hope these ideas help. Good luck!

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  • 4 weeks later...

we play "21" which is basically black jack. they love it. we also have some beer and snacks with thier choice of music playing. its a great time for everyone....

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  • 3 weeks later...

HI, I as well am trying to get a men's group going. It is an uphill battle. I am engaging my manager as the leader of the group at this point , as he is male..... They will be going to a Sports Bar with a pool table this Wed. So far I had no takers but I will go from table to table at lunch at sign them up! :) 

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Thanks to everyone who replied - you have wonderful ideas and I truly appreciate the time you all took out of your own busy days to help me!  Thanks again!  Nan

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  • 1 month later...

Hello everyone My name is Laura Pittman I'm the Life Enrichment Director  at as Assisted living & Memory Care. We have noticed we needed to implement  some men opportunity in our community because we have 80% woman compared to men. So last month we had the Local classic car show come thru from our Retirement Village  and show all the vehicles their. That was a hit til the rain came thru. We also decided to pick 1 day a month and take the men only to a a fishing trip and picnic with our bus driver. This will get our driver  to earn some stuff about our residents and vice a versa. Hope this helps someone of y'all with ideas i know i love ideas and i'm excited to come into this forum and learn from y'all as well  

Laura pittman

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Somebody at the MEPAP course suggested a nurf gun for games - that sounded fun to me. I have not done it myself but I am going to buy one soon and try it out at our next outside activity around the pool! 

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  • 3 weeks later...

One new event we just tried this month was a Classic Car Show. We had about 12 or 13 classic cars parked in the parking lot on a nice, sunny day. I work in a health care unit in a retirement community, and our independent living has a group that formed a classic car club, so some of the cars came from there. We also had staff who had a personal connection to a classic car group who shows their cars regularly. We had ice cream, oldies music (beach boys were a big hit!) and chairs for residents to sit in and enjoy the sunshine. Residents were also given a voting slip to vote for their favorite car which was a nice touch they enjoyed. We have a lot of trips and events that cater to women's interests, but this was geared specifically to the men. A few who had expressed interest from our unit originally did not end up coming out on the day, but we did get quite a few men from other units--and ladies as well! On a more regular basis we do a "Men's Coffee" weekly, where men can get together to chat and have coffee. 

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Hello Everyone,

 

I work in a nursing home where the population is predominantly women and offering programming for the men - or should I say programming for the men that they will attend and participate in - has been challenging.  They enjoy poker night but most other groups we gear towards the men are not as well received.  Does anyone have some suggestions for "fool-proof" men's groups?

 

Thanks for you input,

Nan

Hello Nancy I also work in a nursing home where the population is predominantly men  instead, I use dominos, horseshoes, and we are right now since the weather is sunny we are planning an outing to go fishing, and one resident is interested in playing a card game called "canistas" another resident who is a female showed him how to play and they love playing it up to two to three days a week.  Staff member even join in on the game.  I hope this give you a little bit of ideas.  Good luck and well wishes

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Hey there!

A lot of the older men I know are super into Rummy, which isn't too hard of a card game to learn. =) I haven't tried this myself, but plan on trying horse racing with prizes for the bets instead of money like a trip fishing or a movie night of his choice or a restaurant outing of choice or something like that. 

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I had a volunteer come in for the Vet's who brought in coffee and donuts for them and they sat and spoke about the war years and whetever else they wanted to talk about. It was great!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi I am also in a nursing home that is mostly women. We recently started up a "men's club". They meet monthly the last 2 months have been a men's lunch. but the next one is going to be mid day pretzels and beer. Were also looking into adding on a fishing trip for the men.

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  • 2 weeks later...
 

Hello,

 

With the men in our community, we have tried a couple of different things, which have worked out well.  For example, we started a "Men's Grillmasters Club", where our gentlemen got together for lunch, once a month, on the patio and we grilled, talked about history or any other items of interest, and invited the gentlemen to plan the menu for each month.  They really enjoyed this activity!

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We offer a lot of activities for men at my facility. This was a huge problem when I started. We have men's spa day, classic car facts and trivia, a wood shop class, tailgate parties, and gone fishing. We have also had hooter's outings, fishing trips, and include sporting events on our calendar.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi, at my facility we just recently got enough men to do men activities. So I have started fishing (got a kiddie pool and magnetic fish), bird watching and sports talk. They love it! 

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  • 2 weeks later...

 

I think this is a very common problem for all of us. of course the usual suspects are well received like "nacho bar socials" or any sports related activities. we have horseshoes but also try getting in touch with your local car club. most of them are old timers themselves and can come out any time of day. I made up a game similar to who am I? but with cars. print out 2 photos each in color of a car. keep one normal but on the second one just cut out the defining feature like a taillight or headlight of a car from their era. whoever guesses what year make model etc.from the picture gets more points than guessing what kind of car it is from the picture of the whole car. you can add variations on this. 1 pt. for make 2 pts, for make/model etc. 

weve had belly dancers come out and your areas college cheerleaders or in our case the dallas cowboys visit our facility.

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We did a outing to a baseball game for an all men's activity and they loved it.  We bought them a baseball hat to commemorate this outing. 

 

Also my men love gardening so we have activities where we plant vegetable seeds inside and then transplant them outside once they have started to grow. 

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I too find it difficult to find activities that the men will attend. Men's group did not work at all. The male residents like their independent activities. I have done the Superbowl and NASCAR events. Some men came, most did not. I love the classic car show and maybe going fishing. Right now I'm working on bringing in a local sports figure as a guest speaker.

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Hi, Nan,

Our facility has about an equal number of men and women (50 of each), and though we don't have many activities "just for men" the men seem more active than the women. In house, We can usually get the men to come to anything that includes food.  A number of them are very enthusiastic about Brain Games, where we play games like Wheel of Fortune and Chain of Thought (I mirror my Kindle to the TV and we play the free apps).  They got so good we made a Brain Games Team and challenged the staff for National Nursing Home Week.

 

Our men really enjoy going on outings. The Le May Car Museum is a guaranteed hit, they like the beach, the lake, Wal-Mart, the History Museum, fishing, the zoo, going out to lunch, and anything that gets them out and about. In winter we go to a discount movie theatre once a month and the men flock to that (I have enough staff go along so that they can split up and see different movies if they want).  The State fair is a HUGE hit and they enjoy Scrooge the Musical at Christmas.

 

Men are the backbone of our Resident Council.  The workers at our Resident Store were mostly men.  They like to work on projects and volunteer in Activities.  We do charity work and I can count on the men to stick to it until the end.

 

I like some of these other ideas.  I'm trying to figure out how to get them to a sporting event or rodeo.

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