Fulfilling Activities in Adult Day Centers

Creating fulfilling activities for seniors can be challenging at times, especially if they are suffering from memory loss or physical ailments that limit their abilities to participate the way that others can.  I am blessed to work with some of the most creative people I have ever met.   They are constantly meeting this need for the seniors in our Adult Day Center.  They never cease to amaze me and I am constantly learning from them.

There are two main things that I have learned the most from my co-workers:
1. Try anything, no matter how odd it may seem;  you never know what might work.
2. If it failed once, that does not mean that it will fail again.

We offer a variety of different activities every month.  Sometimes certain activities are scheduled on specific days of the week with certain clients in mind.  For instance, for the lawyer who only comes in on Tuesdays and Thursdays, we schedule a game called "You Be The Judge."  This game engages this client extremely well and brings back to his life a chance to share his knowledge.   Then there is the retired English Professor who misses leading lectures in his classroom; he is given an opportunity to present a different topic each month to the other clients and staff.  By providing this activity for him, we are giving him a sense of purpose and a chance to perform.  There also is a client that spent her life raising her nine children - yes that is right 9 children -  she spent much of her time after her children were grown making quilts but because of memory loss she had stopped doing this.  My staff was able to find a way for her to continue this joy in her life.  It took several different approaches to find the best way for her to be successful at it, but she now comes into the center and gets right into it without hesitation.  I could go on and on with examples of these types of great things that happen in our Adult Day Center.

As clients remain at our center over time, their level of functioning will change.   Activities they once were successful at become difficult and frustrating for them.  Again, my staff observes this and quickly adapts to these changes. An example of this would be to remind you of the client that is a lawyer, that I spoke of in the paragraph above.  Since he started at our center, his condition has progressed and he no longer finds fulfillment in that game.  So the activity for this client was changed.  We looked for another opportunity for him to feel useful.  What we found was that he needed to be responsible for something in the center that made him feel useful.  So we gave him the task of helping with setup for activities and clean up when they are over.  He takes this responsibility very seriously and it is a huge help to our staff.  A win, win situation.

These activities are a direct product of my staff - by them constantly looking for ways for our clients to feel important and useful again.   There are also many activities that, in general, can be easily managed no matter what their losses may be.   We do use these activities regularly as well.  But who wants to do the same thing every day?  We all need variety in our lives no matter what age we are.

Adult Day Services can provide useful, fulfilling and satisfying activities for seniors.  They are designed to provide stimulation and socialization, which in the long run will keep older adults more active physically and mentally.  With all that to offer, it seems kind of silly not to check them out.  This kind of structure to a person's day will keep them living independently longer and can provide comfort to families that their loved one is being productive in a safe environment. 

Aging with Ease can be obtained by feeling useful as older adults!