At ActivityPro, we care deeply about giving you the ability to accurately track the quality of resident engagement in your programs. This is why we use the 3,2,1 scoring system rather than assigning residents as “Active/Passive” or “Present/Absent”. By giving residents a number score, you can do so much more with the data than simply…
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This article looks at how we can sometimes use age to define people and our tendency to associate stereotypes of incompetence, debilitation, and dependency. This can lead to one of the most damaging of the discriminating behaviors of ageism — we start treating older adults like children. One of the examples they use is calling…
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Let’s paint the picture: one staff member is off sick today and you are covering for her; you are in the middle of setting up materials and the room for the next program (one that you personally haven’t run for years!); a volunteer for this afternoon’s program called in to say she couldn’t make it…
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As recreationists, we need and want to share information about our residents, programs and department with others. While we know what is important to us, what we think is important, or great, may not always be the best message to send to others. Let’s take a look at effective “messaging” with two different groups –…
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When family members (or the resident’s significant others) are present at care conferences, you have a wonderful opportunity to demonstrate how effective you and your staff have been in not only reaching the resident with excellent programs, but also to reinforce the positive impact your programs are having on the life and well-being of the…
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For too many years, recreationists have simply relied on tabulating the frequency of resident participation in programs to validate success. In other words, the more often a resident attended programs, the better. Unfortunately such a measure doesn’t represent the quality of engagement, particularly if the resident sleeps through the program, or is distracted and disruptive.…
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You have created your new program, carefully selecting the appropriate expected outcomes relative to the abilities of the residents you have invited to the activity. You are vigorous in your efforts to ensure that you are “meeting the residents where they are” relative to matching residents to programs in which they have the ability to…
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Resident care conferences with families represent a fantastic opportunity for you to really show how great your home and Recreation Department are doing in terms of meeting the needs and responding to the interests of the resident. When families attend the “annual” multidisciplinary care conference, the other department may primarily focus on information and data…
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