Forum Discussion

Hi Taryn,

With regards to the specific activities I guess it all depends as well in what level of dementia the people have that attend the day respite centre.
I have had success even with my higher dementia people with Mandela coloring. You can download Mandela templates from Google (google really is my friend), they are quite individualistic too, you can get the story of Mandela's and talk about it and the history. Look in Golden Carers I believe there is a template here too. You can use texta's; crayons; colourful pencils; water paint etc. We have turned a few into mobiles, currently we are doing some and then laminate to use as place mats - you can minimise and turn them into coasters, get some cork cut to size, glue and then use a waterproof gloss on top. I have been busy putting Montessori themed boxes together and again looked up the type of themes via the internet. We have already got an animal box together and I was able to purchase one of those talk back birds - they are hilarious ! Then walking/barking dog and a walking/neighing horse, plus books I loaned from the library and just copied and laminated them into cards, especially farm animals which can create some fabulous stories. We have our version of Carpet Bowls where people receive certificates for 1st Place; Runner Up and Shot of the Day both men and women love this. I googled popular nursery rhymes with the meaning of it (not for the faint hearted). Some of our guys are religious and I spoke to a retired nun who runs Bible discussion groups each fortnight - she is wonderful and not too serious a person too. Commenced a poetry reading group - called it the book club. I was surprised of the input by my guys. Crafts are always popular, dependant of how many volunteers you have - we commenced making our own cards for special occasions and book marks, very simple and then selling at reception and now down the chemist. One of my volunteers organised to get a stamp done up with Hand Made with Love and the facility name on it. If the budget extends to this, Bunnings has bird houses etc that you put together, complete with sanding and then painting - can be a work in progress. If you know someone handy buy one and see if someone can make the outlines (or again, if you have a volunteer, trace around the items, men can trace around the pieces of wood, then see if someone can saw out, sand and read to put together or see if mens shed can make up several for you. Mosaics? maybe do something up for a garden, a friend of mine went to one of the tile houses, explained what they wanted and asked if they have any cracked or out of stock items they can give away. She came back with some lovely tiles and being a crafty person had completed a mural with her charges - this was a 3-5 month project as it depended on how keen people were to undertake each week. Quiz's are always great, golden carers also has a book of jokes. High Tea? have organised donations of different looking cups etc. works a treat - can make simple finger food too if you are able to. Gardening - have had success in planting winter veggies of seeds from packets into egg shells - again look them up - then used polystyrene boxes to plant seedlings and will be re-planting our seeds that have sprung up - just use the egg shells. Ensure you get the right dirt for success. That way each week you can see the growth, maybe look at using some of the food planted? I am sure others will send you more and probably some of the above too. Hope this helps.

Thank you so much!!! Very help full