Delivering Successful & Appealing Activities on a Shoestring Budget

by Mary Brady & Teresa  Johnson

Activities are an essential feature in each of the over 3,000 adult day centers in the United States.  While each center is unique, clients and caregivers often judge the success of the center’s services on the delivery of quality recreational activities.

 

Planning quality activities that are appropriate for the mix of participants’ ages and interests is only one issue that day center workers face.  Compound that with shoestring budgets and limited cognitive or physical abilities of many participants and the often-perceived "simple" activity position suddenly seems quite complex.

 

Simplifying and sharing the task of planning activity programs is a key to delivering quality services at Senior Services Adult Day Care & Alzheimer’s Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.  The whole day seems to run smoother using a ‘theme’ approach, rather than a series of short unrelated activities.  "Our programs are designed to be failure-free, cost-effective and have universal appeal," says Program Coordinator Mary Brady.  "Our staff has found that by gearing a whole day around a single topic or concept (boxes, pillows, etc.), it is easier for us to work together."  Snacks can fit in with craft activities and a discussion.  Songs containing words related to the themes are incorporated and exercises are adapted when possible.  Theme-programming for activities promotes the involvement of persons beyond members of the center’s staff, including participants, volunteers and caregivers.  Furthermore, these programs simplify crises for staff members in executing the planned program for the day in the event the responsible person is absent.

 

Failure-Free

Designing activity programs to spark a discussion or question-answer session with participants ensures success.  Each participant has opportunity to speak up at will.  Discussions sometimes progress with participants commenting voluntarily throughout the group, or as prompted one-at-a-time around a circle.

       A conversation about refrigerators might be prompted with some of the following questions:

· What might one find in a refrigerator?

· Are all vegetables and fruit stored in the refrigerator?  Why?  Why not?

· What food is stored in the pantry?

 

Cost-Effective

Props or samples that are easily available or can be donated stimulate participants to engage in activities.  On Pillow Day, a discussion of different pillows and their uses prompted extensive discussion.  "Where do pillows ‘live’ in your house?" was a great conversation starter.  A fun craft was creating a no-sew pillow for the center.  Having lots of pillows for participants to see and touch enhanced the day like only props could!  Everyone engaged in a little ‘pillow talk!’

 

Universal Appeal

Themes at Senior Services revolve around topics or items that most people are familiar with at home or at work, Brady says.  Everyone is challenged to think about the topics or items in new ways.  For example, More Than a Box included a discussion of boxes in our lives, and a description of the many materials used to make boxes.  Following a challenging guessing game, What’s in the Box?, participants crafted fancy boxes for gift-giving.  A competitive and fun ‘boxing’ activity that is used in wacky olympics sometimes is racing to see who can wrap a box the fastest.  Box Day wouldn’t have been complete without a ‘boxed’ lunch or snack!

 

Adult day center staff are challenged to remember that an activity program is more than arts and crafts, a movie a week, an occasional party or song fest.  It is all of those things and more.  An activity is anything a person does during the course of the day.

 

A quality activity program adds spice to life; provides mental and physical stimulation; encourages social interaction; rewards efforts and achievement; includes opportunities to use old skills and learn new skills, or be of service to others.¥

 

REFERENCES

 

Cranisky, Kathy and Karen Primm.  Beyond Baskets & Beads, 1996.  Center in the Woods, California, PA.

 

Norman, Jennifer L. and Edward R. Horton.  Adult Day Care Therapeutic Activity Manual, 1996.  Aspen Publishers, Gaithersburg, MD.

 

Peckham, Charles W. & Arline B. Peckham.  Activities Keep Me Going, 1982.  Otterbein Home, Lebanon, OH.

 

Reprinted from The Information Source for Adult Day Centers®, June 1999.