Post

Cedars Care Home avatar

HELP!

I have been an Activities Co-ordinator for a few months now (with no previous experience) and the lady who was training me had to leave to look after family (after a month of training from 0 experience!) I am struggling coming up with Dementia-Friendly Group Activities for my Memory Lane Residents- any help would be greatly appreciated!

Susan avatar

Congratulations on your new job

I assume you are a natural when it comes to activities

Activities for those with dementia can be difficult especially group activities

However I am sure you will find a lot of help on this site

https://www.goldencarers.com/20-practical-activities-for-people-living-with-alzheimers-disease/3778/

I’d like a sing-along because people of many different levels can enjoy it

Some people who cannot speak can sing the words to a song

I think that is important to include everyone in the activity in someway

You might have to have a multi level within a group

https://www.goldencarers.com/comments/26847/

https://www.goldencarers.com/comments/21321/

Besides these ideas you can always do balloon ball kickball with the beach ball

You can have a number of residents sit at the table and each does their own thing but you can facilitate conversations with each one

I also like playing card games

https://www.goldencarers.com/search/#stq=Playing%20card%20games%20for%20those%20with%20dementia&stp=1

and dice games

https://www.goldencarers.com/dice-games-for-the-elderly/5307/

Often you have to be the facilitator to make the group as smooth as possible

This should be a good place to start

Let me know if you need any more specific help about things I have mentioned

Gigi avatar
Gigi Director of Recreation Therapy

I think the challenge here is to do no contact activities with COVID restrictions. If you play cards or dice games you need to wipe down everything as soon as someone touches them and definitely cannot pass around to other residents!

Music therapy is huge in our memory care unit, use an ipad that only you touch, find pandora or amazon music and search 40's or 50's music, play part of the song and let them try to guess what song it is.

This or that? game.

Dry erase board for words-in-words game, Pictionary, hangman.

Use laptop for youtube clips of funny animals.

Reminisce 1:1 about favorite holiday, best pet ever, etc.

Finish the phrase- on golden carers website

A-Z like scattergories: name something that starts with B that you find at the beach; starts with the letter C that you find in the garden, etc.

There are a lot of things on Goldencarers- Alzheimer's category, Activity Connection website, and on Pinterest.

Susan avatar

Wow GIgi what great ideas

As far as the dice go

I would give each resident on their own days so they’re not touching each other’s

Thanks for sharing

Vanessa avatar

You can always email me and we can talk about perfect ideas [email protected] my name is Nessy :)

Susan avatar

Thank you for this Vanessa

20+ FREE Activities

Enjoy meaningful activity ideas that you can use with your clients straight away.

Free Activities
Become a Member!

A 12 month membership with unlimited access is just $59.99 USD! It's quick and easy to sign up.

Join Now

Amanda Mitchell
Activity Coordinator United Kingdom Flag
Amanda Mitchell

You have been such a valuable asset to my work. I love this site and I use it a lot. I tell all other activities coordinators about it. Thankyou.