Forum Discussion

Hi, Sunya. Sure, if she is resourceful she will do a good job. If she isn't, train her and support her for a while and she will become good.

Hi Sunya,

Yes, I believe they can especially as Solange says if they are resourceful. A good place to start may be to have them schedule 2-3 activities a week to see how they do.

Thank you Solange for your reply.

Glad to help, Sunya.

We have a base calendar and I run ideas past my assistant. We then come up with new activities or times that suit everyone. I also find that Leisure and Health work experience students have some great ideas that come from their school.
We have to produce 2 calendars. One for our memory support clients and one for everyone else. As coordinator I would put the calendars together using the joint information from discussions. However there is no reason an assistant couldn’t be trained to do them. I always think it’s a good idea to have knowledge of all work areas and tasks. That way the calendar will still go out on time if I was on leave etc.

I have my Assistant and our Music Therapist plan the programs that each will be responsible to implement on the days and times that they work. It has reduced my stress level by 90% when working on our facility calendar.
Also, the calendar is on the shared drive. So when they are ready to input their programs they can do this on their own also. This has been a much more efficient way, and a time saver, to put the programming together each month. Also, it gives them the ownership to their programs they plan.

There are five of us working in our memory care unit (37 residents max). One full-time coordinator and one part-time assistant during the week. The weekends are manned by two-part-time assistants, one upstairs, one downstairs. Weekends assistants alternate working the weekends. We are each responsible for our own activities on the days we work, and we submit them to the coordinator.

Thank you all for this information.