Activities for Elderly Patients at a Care Home -
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Gone are the days when elderly care meant making them sit in groups and watch television. They would watch shows and it will be a constant battle between them to decide what to. Today, it has evolved so much like any other industry or sector. Nursing homes or senior citizen homes offer a variety of activities to keep them engaged and interested. These activities are also aligned with their personal interest so that they are keen on taking part in them. This helps to keep their mind and body healthy and active. These activities in old age home are made fairly regular and individuals also engage with others while taking part in them. Depression, memory loss, joint pain and sores are on the rise due to the fact that they remain inactive for a longer period of time. Doing some activities makes them forget about their worries and helps them enjoy the time.

Person-Centered Care

Taking into account the condition of each individual and their interests, person-centered care encourages the care receiver to decide what type of care they want to receive as well as what activities they would be interested in doing every day. One can also include the care receiver’s friends and family as well as themselves while designing these care packages. Especially in cases where the person suffers from memory loss or dementia, involving their family will be a great idea. Not many people want to send their loved ones to homes for caretaking. It is due to their medical conditions and the need for someone to be there for them all the time, gives them no choice. By involving family members in the personal care program, they feel better since they know how exactly their loved ones will be treated when they are not around.

Some of the activities included in-person care could be activities where everyone at home can take part in provided they would like to and also individual activities for people who do not want to be part of the common activities. Before designing the activities one has to keep in mind, the kind of people they are catering to, religion, their work history, why they have decided to move to the home etc. There is no hard and fast rule that people must take part in the activities. They can always opt out of any activities they do not want to do.

All the activities that are conducted should have a co-coordinator to ensure that everyone is doing them. They must be conducted in an organized manner and should involve a sufficient number of participants. It should also take into account that the number of people at home could vary every day and this change should not affect the activities in any manner. Activities that do not go well with the residents should either be dropped out or changed. One cannot also have exhaustive activities as these are done by people who are old. The coordinator must explain each activity even though the instructions are self-explanatory. Regular meetings can be conducted and feedback regarding the activities can be accepted by the coordinator.

Healing Effects Of Music

Playing music is one of the most common methods that many homes, as well as nursing facilities, adopt. Residents can listen to relaxing music which they can sing along to or dance or play instruments. Music as studies have shown has a healing effect for many mental illnesses. Relaxing and calming music is especially very good for the mind. One of the things to keep in mind while playing music is that the place should be free of any disturbances such as a telephone. The coordinator or the person who is leading the session should be able to get everyone involved in the program for best results.

Using Video Games

Older people are also interested in playing video games using Xbox or Wii. The fact that these games are interactive keep them engaged. Games like tennis can be played like you would in the actual court and this helps in improving their hand-eye coordination. Multiplayer games encourage players to challenge each other so this involves social connect as well. The only pre-requisite would be to install a large television screen so that the players can see themselves or the game a bit more clearly.

Even though, the care center plans for many activities, not all of them will be willing to participate. To tackle this problem a timetable can be introduced where each person is assigned to do different things each day. This way everyone can play and play different activities.

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