Do care home residents ever do anything to keep busy?

[angelface]

I suppose the answer is that it depends on the home.

In my aunts CH there seems to be very little to entertain her. There is a church service once a month, musical afternoons once or twice a month, which she does not always like as they are too loud. Other than that, she has a hair wash once a week and a manicure when they get round to it.

Other than a weekly visit from myself or friends, nothing else happens - and I have asked the home to check I have this right.

I have asked several times if they could help her knit, but it never happened. Also they tell me that one of the staff can take auntie out to buy shoes, but I can't see it happening.

I was tempted to move her to a more interesting home, but this one fufils most of the basic needs. and moving her would probably not do her a lot of good.

Has anyone tried a paid companion, and what did the companion do? I just feel so sad for her, it really does feel like God's waiting room.

 

[FifiMo]

This can be a difficult situation no matter which home your loved one is in. You have to balance the fact that this is now their home and they have the ability to do as they wish and this includes opting out of activities etc also. Then you have the issue of what to do. Would it suit all people? As you've said the music can be too loud for some. Who are you therefore targeting the activities towards?

I dealt with this issue by considering what my mum would have chosen to do if she was at home on her own. The answer was that she would sit in her chair and watch tv, even when she could no longer follow the plot. Would she join in if we introduced some activity or another? Sometimes, but her concentration/interest level was reduced to just a couple of minutes before she would wander off. There were cupboard loads of 'activities' in the care home and even if they were laid out no one would participate in any of them. This is difficult for us to accept because we have been conditioned to feel that unless you are engaged in one activity or another then you have not got any quality of life. Then the answer so far as my mother was concerned hit me. She did have quality of life in her care home but it did not emanate from activities and being kept busy. My mother's quality of life came from being surrounded by people and interacting with them. Her favourite activity was watching the world go by around her. The interaction with staff and other relatives is what made her day and put a smile on her face. She wasn't expected to 'perform'. She had what was missing at home...company and attention. It was also very interesting, despite her severe dementia, how much she took in about the different people. She understood the needs of some of the residents and would know to pick something up for someone who was immobile. She would recognise other relatives as part of what was now her extended family. When you spoke to her on her own she would have comments about everyone and it was amazing how accurate she was in her observations! LOL

Hope this helps,

Fiona

 

[CollegeGirl]

That's a wonderful post, Fiona, and very, very reassuring about life and activity - or lack of it - in a care home. I'm glad that you realised that the quiet life and just watching the world go by is what your mum wanted and what made her content. Thank you.

 

[jaymor]

My husband's nursing home has an activity co-ordinator and she works really hard and has a very wide range of activities. Sometimes my husband will throw himself into what ever he wants to do and other times refuses point blank to do anything. He has 1:1 care so has a constant ( but changing ) companion and is just happy to walk and talk some days.

I think it is important for the activiies to be available but it is certainly not for everyone. If you know your cared for would like to be more active and involved and there is nothing available then ask for something to be made available and by the same token if you know they prefer to sit and watch then make sure they are not being made to do what they would not enjoy. We all know our loved ones best and have to speak up for them if they are past doing so for themselves.

Jay

 

[nogginthenog]

My MIL's home is in the process of transforming from AWFUL to actually quite good under the influence of a new management team - and activities have been a long standing problem.

By Activities I don't mean the set piece "get a singer in" once a month - but the day to day , minute to minute interacton with residents.

Although AD residents will sit for hours in a chair staring at a blank wall it does not mean that life cannot be enriched for them - but its hard and takes a bit of work.

By activities I mean

Watching TV - putting on appropriate programs at suitable volume, helping residents to move in and out of TV and quite areas depending on what they want to do. Serving biscuits or ice cream in an "interval".

Music ! - playing appropriate music , allowing (helping) residents to listen , move , or dance if they want to . There is a piano in my MIL's home and occassionally a resident will play something or at least bang out a few notes.

Talking with staff - I have seen residents sitting in the office "helping" (!) as a member of staff fills out paperwork - the activity still has meaning to the resident even if we can't understand what they think they are doing

Food - afternoon tea and biscuits can be a sterile "feeding" task or can be turned into an oportunity to generate interaction and a tea party atmosphere. Likewise mealtimes can be an activity - but it takes effort.

A rich environment - boxes of "stuff" in the home, does not even matter what it is that much ! some residents will pick up cloths and either mimic cleaning or just hold and stroke materials with pleasent textures. Dolls, and cuddly toys, balls , old ornaments - residents will wander, look, touch and play. If they can't move try giving them things to keep there hands busy.

Residents will pick up books - some may not be able to understand what they are looking at but still enjoy the familiar sensations of flicking through or looking at pictures.

Craft work - kintting , making easter bonnets - a resident may need a lot of help, or just enjoy watching others do things

Even hair washing , nail cutting etc. can be done to try and mimic a hairdressers - I have seen an activity co-ordinator washing and setting hair, painting nails etc with half dozen ladies round the room and a real fun atmosphere

I know its hard - my MIL's home took no new residents for a year or so and 90% of the residents are pretty "advanced" - some have almost no language and mobility - but will still play with a doll and jiggle a leg or clap a hand in response to some music or chair based "excercise"

Sorry to rant - but for me its a matter of staff attitude and training and adapting to each individual resident . It don't think it matters how advanced the AD is there is probably still something that can be done to enrich life

 

[CraigC]

Dad's residential home had one part-time activities coordinator and his nursing home two full-time activity coordinators. They both did a pretty good job but as you said Jay, it is all down to the attitude of the manager or how hands on they are with the day-to-day running of the home.

The activities coordinators where always looking for ideas so I bought them both a book - Alzheimer’s Society book of activities or you could recommended it to the new manager.

You can download the publications booklet here:

http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/site/scripts/download_info.php?fileID=1304

Loads of good books, any home should provide support/training and books like these to some their staff. Happier occupied residents mean happier staff.

Kind Regards
Craig

 

[Wolfsgirl]

You could have been writing this about my Mum Fiona!

This can be a difficult situation no matter which home your loved one is in. You have to balance the fact that this is now their home and they have the ability to do as they wish and this includes opting out of activities etc also. Then you have the issue of what to do. Would it suit all people? As you've said the music can be too loud for some. Who are you therefore targeting the activities towards?

I dealt with this issue by considering what my mum would have chosen to do if she was at home on her own. The answer was that she would sit in her chair and watch tv, even when she could no longer follow the plot. Would she join in if we introduced some activity or another? Sometimes, but her concentration/interest level was reduced to just a couple of minutes before she would wander off. There were cupboard loads of 'activities' in the care home and even if they were laid out no one would participate in any of them. This is difficult for us to accept because we have been conditioned to feel that unless you are engaged in one activity or another then you have not got any quality of life. Then the answer so far as my mother was concerned hit me. She did have quality of life in her care home but it did not emanate from activities and being kept busy. My mother's quality of life came from being surrounded by people and interacting with them. Her favourite activity was watching the world go by around her. The interaction with staff and other relatives is what made her day and put a smile on her face. She wasn't expected to 'perform'. She had what was missing at home...company and attention. It was also very interesting, despite her severe dementia, how much she took in about the different people. She understood the needs of some of the residents and would know to pick something up for someone who was immobile. She would recognise other relatives as part of what was now her extended family. When you spoke to her on her own she would have comments about everyone and it was amazing how accurate she was in her observations! LOL

Hope this helps,

Fiona

 

[angelface]

I visited today, and found auntie taking part in an activity time I had not seen before, playing ball and word games and so on.

Auntie seemed very smiley and happy to take part. However, none of the staff had time to answer the questions I wanted to ask. I had taken in cakes and biscuits for all the residents to share at tea time, as today is a special day for auntie, and previously discussed this with staff. The staff member I left them with said she hoped the food would come back out of the kitchen ...

A family member had left a present for auntie with the office. No-one can find it today. I left it with the manager. Hope she finds it.

I wish it was not such an up hill struggle

Sorry for the rant, but honestly, what can you do with them???

 

[sistermillicent]

The place mum goes for regular respite and day care has a few activities which I think they encourage mum to join in with. However, mum likes to wander or sit in her chair or sing occasionally, nothing more.

We, her family, make every effort to support the things the home puts on for the residents, whether it is a musical evening or a summer fete or a special christmas party, but I am very disappointed that other relatives don't have the same attitude and we are usually one of only a very few who turn up. Most of the people who seem to support the homes efforts are the staff who turn up when they are off duty.

I just don't understand why people don't want to become part of the place and make it more of a family thing.

So in answer to the question about whether homes should be doing things with residents, yes, they should, but they need support from the families.

 

[tarababe]

That's a wonderful post, Fiona, and very, very reassuring about life and activity - or lack of it - in a care home. I'm glad that you realised that the quiet life and just watching the world go by is what your mum wanted and what made her content. Thank you.

That's what I think mum did when she was at the care home and I hope when she returns, she will be reasonably happy watching everyone else. Well when
she stops asking, "Who's that"

I visited today, and found auntie taking part in an activity time I had not seen before, playing ball and word games and so on.

Auntie seemed very smiley and happy to take part. However, none of the staff had time to answer the questions I wanted to ask. I had taken in cakes and biscuits for all the residents to share at tea time, as today is a special day for auntie, and previously discussed this with staff. The staff member I left them with said she hoped the food would come back out of the kitchen ...

A family member had left a present for auntie with the office. No-one can find it today. I left it with the manager. Hope she finds it.

I wish it was not such an up hill struggle

Sorry for the rant, but honestly, what can you do with them???

I know what you mean. I made loads of cup cakes and took them in, for the resident's, my mum and the staff on her floor. Couldn't make for all the home it would be too many. Anyway, next time I went in, one of the carers said the nurses took a box of them away and not all the residents even got one...

 

[karanja]

mrs k's home

Mrs k has been in a CH now for just over a year.Her home has an activities co-ordinater but only for 20hrs a week.The activities tend to be in the afternoons but are very varied and the residents are asked if they wish to take part or not.

A monthly program is posted on the notice board,this is mainly for the benefit of visitors to see what is going on as the majority of residents wouldn't or couldn't read it.

Examples of activeity's include the "keep fat" club (exercise for wheelchair users),Armchair yoga(mrs k's favourite),knitting bee,sing a long,weekly bingo,pub quiz with the weekly alcohol trolley and weekly film show (dvd).

Mrs k likes the activities but often complains that there is so much going on that she doesn't get time for herself.

 

[Sunbell]

The carers at my mums nursing home take all the laundered towels and sit with mum so that she can help fold them all. She says she has been working!

Mum enjoys sing songs even though she is very advanced with AD and cannot remember many words when trying to speak, she can remember most words of old songs. I find it amazing.

I find mum and the other residents in the nursing home live in their own little world and no matter what, the only way to make them feel contented and happy is to enter their world and go along with whatever they are doing, even playing with dolls, colouring books, winding and re-winding small balls of wool etc., it doesn't matter as long as they are content.

Sunbell

 

[susana53]

All care homes are so different. I've been a carer for more years that I would like to admit, and a freelance activity co-ordinator for just over 8 years. Some of the homes I go to have very little to offer when I'm not there, whereas others do something with the residents most of the day.
I took an old ewbank carpet sweeper, feather duster and a couple of ordinary yellow dusters in to one home for the residents to use. Within minutes of seeing these items, one lady was busily sweeping away, up and down the halls. She loves cleaning and moving things about.
Different strokes for different folks.

 

[jaymor]

If my husband goes into the kitchen with his carer he will wash up any crockery left in the sink with his carer drying. He never could stand dirty crockery being left in sink. He also walks down to the laundry with his carer and will help bring back the clean laundry trolley. I class these as activities and what he likes to do. Good activities is letting the residents do what they like doing, be it dancing, walking, crafting or just sitting but the activities need to be there and they need to be diverse.

Jay

 

[angelface]

I really like the sound of the CH where Mrs K lives. How do we encourage auntie's CH to do a bit more?

I think a bit of more trouble is that I used to run a preschool for under 5s, so I can see a lot of things that could be done. Not saying the residents are babies, but I can see some parallels

About the home made cakes - I wanted to go to the local baker who does really scrumptious sandwiches and cakes (ooh those cherry slices), and provide tea for all the residents on aunties floor. Would have been expensive, but really good. Home said no thank you.

OH said it was health and safety, he reckoned it all had to be manufactured and in boxes before home felt safe to serve it. Very sad

 

[Witzend]

If my husband goes into the kitchen with his carer he will wash up any crockery left in the sink with his carer drying. He never could stand dirty crockery being left in sink. He also walks down to the laundry with his carer and will help bring back the clean laundry trolley. I class these as activities and what he likes to do. Good activities is letting the residents do what they like doing, be it dancing, walking, crafting or just sitting but the activities need to be there and they need to be diverse.

Jay

My FIL was still extremely active when he went into the wonderful CH we found after so much searching. The owner/manager's wife was a builder who kept the place shipshape and did the cash-and-carry runs. Often he would take FIL with him to help with lugging boxes and packages around - it was brilliant for FIL, who would never in a million years have wanted to participate in 'traditional' activities, crafts, etc.

 

[stanleypj]

I really like the sound of the CH where Mrs K lives. How do we encourage auntie's CH to do a bit more?

I think a bit of more trouble is that I used to run a preschool for under 5s, so I can see a lot of things that could be done. Not saying the residents are babies, but I can see some parallels

About the home made cakes - I wanted to go to the local baker who does really scrumptious sandwiches and cakes (ooh those cherry slices), and provide tea for all the residents on aunties floor. Would have been expensive, but really good. Home said no thank you.

OH said it was health and safety, he reckoned it all had to be manufactured and in boxes before home felt safe to serve it. Very sad

It's ridiculous isn't it? The kind of thing that gets the important issues of H and S a bad name. You can understand why the Health and Safety Executive get so annoyed about people making these kind of judgments.

I would imagine the baker would be pretty hacked off also at the implication that the stuff he produces might not be healthy and safe!

Nice idea though - well done for trying.