Oliver

She was offered refreshments, both formally and informally.. she was asked if she needed to use the bathroom but she did so independently when she needed to. Advice from NOK was do not speak to her when she is displaying this distressed behaviour, as it angers her that you are interfering. NOK set up a lovely memory box with personal items - this was then used to hit staff with. A quiet, 1:1 support session made no difference. She has since left our service and been given the help she required. I feel there was a lot more going on there than her known diagnosis personally.

Are you able to seat them in a circle and put soft balls or balloons on the parachute and see who can get them through the hole first?
Play some fun, upbeat music and make it an exercise group at the same time.

ADVICE NEEDED:

I work in a day service for older adults who are predominantly living with dementia. We provide them with a wide range of activities ranging from baking, gardening, floristry, nail bars, quiz, music etc the whole lot.

Recently one of my ladies has become very distressed and medical reasoning has only put it down to progression of her mixed dementia. She can be very engaged with you and the activity, laughing and very tactile and suddenly she is walking off, shouting and screaming that she wants to go home. There are no known triggers or specific times that this happens and I am at a loss of how to settle her. She will be going into a more suitable care facility but until this happens I would like to keep her engaged and happy as much as I can. Even providing her known preferred activities is not working. She has made it abundantly clear she wants to leave by shouting and screaming and pushing fire exits.

Are there any tidbits of advice that anyone would be able to offer? I am studying my level 3 of principles of dementia and it's clear to me that this lady is not in the right environment but her NOK are in crisis and need the respite we provide.

Help!

Thanks all! The check list has helped, but of course it's only when he wants to do it, some days he is interested, other days, not at all.
It's no problem if he just enjoys walking, at the moment he is attending our service alone due to COVID etc we aren't open properly to all of our customers.
The work station looks great! We did order a tool box with wooden tools etc, but he didn't show much interest in that.. but can always try again!

Hi all,

I work in a day service setting for older adults with a range of different abilities.

I have one gentleman who is quite far into his dementia journey mentally, but physically walks around completely unaided. He walks around constantly, as he used to be a caretaker he likes to check on things all the time, tapping doors, chairs, light switches etc. We have compiled a 'check list' as he always thinks he is at work.
I cannot seem to get him to engage in anything for more than a couple of minutes at a time.
We've done ball games, balloon games, quoits and within minutes he will become aggressive and throw something AT you rather than TO you, often while swearing.

Any ideas of activities that may help him to remain engaged for a longer period of time?
He rarely sits down!

Thanks all.