Kim

We crown a Valentine's day King and Queen every year. Residents and staff vote. Everyone loves it!

You can facilitate interaction among residents by doing a monthly "Resident Spotlight," where residents gather to meet one resident and get to know them better. My residents love this and are always wondering who the resident will be for the month.

Wehonorveterans.org has nice, free, printable, customizable certificates with military branches.

You could also do staff awards, where residents vote for staff members that have made a difference to them. Have a couple cool prizes available for the staff members that get the most votes.

I recently got "Chair Exercises Bingo" from S & S Worldwide. Residents do the exercise or stretching on the card you read, then they cover that exercise if it's on their card. My residents like this.

These comments are great. I would only add that maybe you can find out--for those residents that are doing something else during activity times--what they are doing. If they are watching "The Price is Right," maybe you could make that an activity and serve donuts & coffee. If they are reading, you could do a read-aloud with stories and poems. Word games for those doing puzzles. Coloring contests for those doing coloring. Western shows on TV are hugely popular in my facility, so I show western movies and do trivia. I feel for you! Hang in there!

Keep going, my friend!

Hi, Dawn:

You mentioned writing a word and having residents come up with words using those letters. Every Friday morning, we do that. We call it "Word Power." Our group calls themselves the "Word Power Wonders," and they love the game; they also enjoy initiating new members into the group, explaining the rules and strategies for coming up with new words. One resident has written a poem about the Word Power Wonders, and she memorialized former members of the group who have passed or were discharged. This is a great activity to get staff involved: my residents enjoy staff popping in to see if they can come up with a word or two.

Another game we do I call "Listmania." We make lists of things like countries of the world, actors/actresses, professions, bodies of water. My residents really enjoy this and look forward to it when they see it on the Activities calendar. Listmania is a great "ad hoc" activity--if you see several residents sitting in the lobby looking bored, you can grab your white board and just go.

My residents also enjoy Hangman.

My residents' favorite trivia is from a huge "Mental Floss Trivia" book--my higher cognitive residents love this as well and always comment when they see it on the calendar.

Kim

I am just starting a regular men's program this month. I am doing "vintage sports:" I have a DVD of Game 7 of the 1960 World Series, Yankees vs. Pirates. I showed a game from the 1975 World Series around Father's Day, and I had a good response. I also have planned a "model cars" group, and I got some easier-to-assemble model cars for the guys to work on together. I will also do some simple leather-working. Other than that, I need ideas, too! Some great ideas here! Thanks to all!

I have a lady with dementia who wanders, too. I have tried many things with her, but the thing she likes the most is for me to walk with her up and down her hall and chat. I don't use a "baby" tone with her, just be me and talk to her like an adult talking to a friend. She also sometimes likes to look at pretty pictures in magazines. She has written book of spiritual poetry in the past, so sometimes she likes for me to read her short poems about God and spirituality.

In September, I finished a Continuing Ed course about activities for dementia residents. I tried twirling a ribbon around a cardboard TP tube, paper balling and other things. None of these things held her attention for even a minute! But she does like to walk with me and chat.

We have churches that "sponsor" residents for Christmas. They put names on their angel tree for parishoners to pick up. The churches always appreciate gift suggestions, so that is my task--thinking of what to request for specific residents. Hoodies are popular, along with cardigan sweaters, sweats, games, and gift cards. For my residents who are veterans, patriotic gifts are popular. From the time I send in the lists to the churches to the time of the actual giving of gifts, of course there will be some who have died or are not there any more. So I try to ask for things that can be transferred. We have 2 churches who sponsor us every year. I am glad this is what I inherited when I got this job. I call them early October to verify that they are on board again for another year, and they request that the gift suggestions be turned in by Nov. 1.