Candice

Hi all,

I'm a therapy assistant in little ole Meekatharra of Western Australia and I conduct activities for the residents of the Aged Care Hostel each Wednesday. I am completely green to this and so it was great to come across articles such as this one but also comments such as yours to help motivate ideas and understanding when it came to not only my role but also the gorgeous residents I will be working with.

Being only a small town we only have a handful of residents in the hostel and it has been some time since they have had any kind of activity such as the program that I am merely beginning to implement with them. They are a mixture of aboriginal and white australian and for the most part they are sedentary as they have become accustomed to this way of life with not having much interaction other than their stay in carers who clean, wash, feed and generally watch over them.
Getting them interested to take part once again I felt would best start with my coming in each Wednesday to sit and talk to each of them and try striking up a bond but I have found this to be quite difficult as some of the aboriginal residents understand english but do not speak it by choice or do not speak to me because of their own cultural reasons or past influences. It is a challenge but a small one as I plan to simply do the do and by that I have created an activity plan over the next two months mixed between - arts and crafts, cooking or at least small amount of prep for us all to eat and drink as a group on that day, game day, and an outing which will almost always include morning tea/picnic. Of course the resources that are available are either few or dated and so this is obviously something I am trying to rectify but til then I have used ideas towards what is available until we are able to get in some new resources. I do feel that by having new resources readily available it will help the morale and general ambience and even attitudes of the carers and residents so this has been one of my main focuses.

I would love to gain any and all ideas for me regarding my new role and anything else you dear people can give me. I would appreciate it so much.

Thank you all.