Forum Discussion

HI Debbie, I have never heard of this product and will look it up. We do have an aromatherapist/clinical masseuse who visits once per week and uses and electric aroma therapy diffuser, even in our higher dementia area and we have not had a problem with this. I guess the first place to start is that you would need to speak to your OH&S officer to ensure that it meets the guidelines of the facility you work at.

Hi Debbie, This name idea might be too basic or elementary but there was a time that I called a sensory stimulation program
"Look, Listen and Feel" but that may not be what you want as far as relating to the Aromatherapy ? As far as using a scent warmer or equipment using an electrical source unfortunately we had to get it checked out by our maintenance department which would approve it or not for usage within the facility. Love the diffuser idea. I recently had tremendous success in once again using a variety of fresh herbs from the garden for sensory stimulation These included: oregano, lavender, basil, lemon basil, thyme, ginger mint, parsley, chives, citronella; etc. What a wonderful idea you have to use the blocks of scent I hope they approve it for use.
Good Luck !

Hi Debbie,
I recently did an activity on using the scense of smell and instead of using the scentsy warmers I took the scentsy wax testers (I am an consultant but you maybe able to borrow some testers from a scentsy consultant in your area) along and past them around and got them to write down the fragrance, those that couldn't write I helped, we spoke about what the fragrance reminded them of and memories. What I found interesting was that there were several that said they could not smell much at all, just wondering if loss of smell as they age is a common occurance? I was surprised as these waxes are quite strong with out being warmed.
It was a fun activity and bought up many memories and we had a great afternoon chatting about what they liked.

Bridget

I agree you can't call it aromatherapy unless you have qualifications. We call it smelling activities or olfactory stimulation depending on what setting we are in.

We ran a similar activity throughout the month in our day centres. Each week we focused on a different sense. It was simply called 'what is that smell'. the support workers used a scarf to cover the eyes of a client and then would put different thing in their hands for them to smell.
a bottle of eucalyptus oil, various spice containers - curry powder, basil, oregano, a lavender flower etc.
For Sound they played musical bingo, and 'what was that sound" this then started conversations about radio competitions.
When we came to "what food is that" we used seasonal fruit. -
For touch we played with the "feely" box.
For sight we used a picture that had many different things in it and we asked the clients to name an item, we wrote these on a white board so that we could see how many items we could discover.
Most activities will become group discussions as you talk about things you like - the smell of bread baking - or things you don't like - rotten eggs.
With any of these activities i find you are only limited by your imagination, and the time you can spend on them.