What are the ltc care residents interested in?

rn/writer, RN · Mar 18, 2012

If you know which facility you will be going to, why not at least call the place beforehand? You may not be able to visit, but you could ask what kinds of activities they currently offer and what kinds of responses they get.

Maybe, if they have an occupational therapist or an activities director, she would be willing to ask the residents what would interest them. If this isn't allowed, try to find other people in the same age group and ask what they'd like to hear about.

One of my pet peeves in this kind of project is that it often seems geared to meeting the needs of the providers (volunteers, students, practitioners, etc.) rather than the recipients. Unless you're going to be limited to a dementia unit, you'll find a wide range of cognitive abilities. Just because people are old(er), that doesn't mean they are passive or docile or dull. Many of the simpler craft ideas and printable games have been done to death, and quite frankly, some of them seem like brownie troop activities. I'm not finding fault with you personally. Only expressing sadness that many times opportunities like this one turn into doing something to or acting upon or treating as children a group of people who just a short time ago ran the world. They are your best resource.

Maybe they want to learn more about current technology--things like how to connect with their grandkids and great-grandkids on Facebook or Twitter or how to use Pandora or Google or Wii (some LTC facilities have Wii hookups in a day room or other public area). Even if you just explain what technology is out there, that might help them feel more up-to-date, and some may have smart phones or iPods or laptops.

Skip the boring nutrition stuff and talk about international cuisine--some of the residents may have sampled faraway foods when they or a spouse were in the service or have memories of ethnic family traditions. There might be a way to make some simple recipes.

Look at library issues of the AARP magazine for teaching articles.

You could find a number of songs popular back in the '30s, '40s, '50s, etc. Print out the lyrics to a dozen or so. Let the teaching part focus on the respiratory benefits of belting out a couple of tunes every day. And then have a good old-fashioned sing-along. It would be especially inspiring if you students learned the music and lyrics and/or brought in a tape recorder and joined in the fun. Libraries have tons of old CDs by Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Tony Bennett, Rosemary Clooney (aunt of George) and other wonderful artists. Music is one of the last things to go in in memory loss. And long-term memories from youth and young adulthood hang on the longest. There really is great benefit--cognitive, respiratory, mood--in singing treasured songs, especially in a group of people who share that same legacy.

Visit websites where older people talk about what's on their minds.

The most important thing is to let this develop organically from what the residents themselves (or people like them) value.

I'll be interested in hearing how this goes.

Long Term Care Columnist / Guide · Mar 18, 2012

I echo what rn/writer said, especially the part about focusing on the activities older people themselves would prefer. Having dementia or being physically disabled doesn't make one less of an adult (even if they sometimes act that way), and no one appreciates being marginalized.......not saying the OP is doing so, just that it happens all the time even by the best-intentioned caregivers.

My 65-year-old sister is in a SNF right now, getting rehab for her total-hip replacement surgery, and as much as I know about long-term care from working in the field for 10 out of my 15 years as a nurse, it's really different when seen from the other side of things. The care staff were astounded to find that she is as sharp mentally as any of them, that her grey hair and glasses belie the teenager she still is at heart, and that she is perfectly capable of directing her own care. Offering her crayons would be an insult of the worst order.......she is technologically savvy, and yesterday when I visited I found her in the dayroom showing her Nook Color to another lady who was old enough to be our mother, and demonstrating how she could send an E-mail to her daughter in North Carolina.

Even with memory loss, however, people don't always forget how to play the card games they enjoyed as younger adults, or sing the songs they fell in love to, or pray the old familiar prayers that comforted them when their parents passed away decades ago. At my assisted living facility there is a fellow who can barely remember his own name, but he still plays concert piano as flawlessly as he must have when he was young, and he doesn't even need sheet music!

So yes, as Miranda said, ask the residents what they'd like to do for activities.......you might be very pleasantly surprised.:)

mazy · Mar 18, 2012

Agree with both of the above. Find out what matters to the residents and figure out an activity where they get the opportunity to teach you about their world, about their pasts, what they did, who they were when they were your age and just starting out.

I remember in nursing school I went to a reading circle at the senior center. The book they picked was "Bernice Gets a Bob." It as a short story about a young woman in the '20s who got a "bob" haircut, which was, in that era, a radical departure from the norms of the day.

It elicited some really fascinating discussions about what it was like to be a young woman, growing up, rebelling, and what that felt like...something that women of ALL ages can identify with.

A really enjoyable experience, I would have gone back for more if it weren't for the fact that I was in nursing school and had no time for fun diversions.

CapeCodMermaid, RN · Mar 19, 2012

The residents are as interested in as many different things as we are. Singing is pretty universal but musical tastes vary.

I started a chorus on the dementia unit...we're not quite ready for Idol, but they all seem to be having fun.Cooking can be fun for some residents.....reading or being read to, using the Wii, playing solitaire with a deck of cards or on line. One activity does not fit every resident.