Julie

Hi Kirsty.

It's been a tough year and my job as activity coordinator in wales has changed dramatically. Last March I thought I was drowning, but inspiration eventually comes every now and then. we all need to try and not be too hard on ourselves. You need to think outside the box now. My care home has been very strict during the past year, so it has been 90% one to one. A lot of the time I spend communicating with friends and family of residents, via phone or video call or writing letters for them. I find reminiscing games are good, balloon, skittles. Seated exercise is good I use you tube videos ( with music of their era). Reading the local newspapers and chatting about them. Crosswords, colouring, magic painting, flower arranging (can be just buying a bunch of flowers and getting resident to arrange in vase). Board games (snakes and ladders and domino). Anything musical. With advanced dementia i found sensory music/autism sensory music and sometimes with video visuals works well, blowing bubbles, hand massage. Hope this helps. Keep going this is such an important job. Some days I feel I haven't achieved much but that's just me being hard on myself. I know what ever i do with my residents it helps them.