Using Day to Day Activities for Meaningful Engagements with your Residents

We know that it can often be difficult to engage your residents in meaningful activities, and to provide a person centred approach to activities run within care settings.  It is important that people maintain their independence once they move into a care home, and continue to take part in daily activities; this can boost people's self esteem, provide them with a sense of achievement and improve their well-being.

We've spoken with our clients and colleagues, and we've come up with our top 10 day to day activities for meaningful engagements with your residents (in no particular order):

1. Keeping Animals - Keeping animals such as chickens can provide an enjoyable routine, particularly for residents who used to live on a farm or had livestock. Collecting the eggs and eating them for breakfast is very rewarding!
2. Making the Bed - Some residents may enjoy helping staff to make their bed, providing them with a sense of achievement and pride.
3. Polishing Cutlery - This can be nice as a 1:1 or group activity; whilst polishing perhaps play some music in the background, talk about the days when the residents polished cutlery at home or at work if they were a waitress/waiter.
4. Folding Tea towels or Napkins - For residents that often wander you may find that they enjoy sitting down and folding laundry such as tea towels or napkins, and doing something productive with their hands.
5. Watering the plants - Residents who used to enjoy gardening (and no doubt still would enjoy gardening if it is accessible) may like to help water the garden or plants, this can be a nice job in the summer during the light evenings.
6. Taking the dog for a walk - some care homes having a dog, and residents who are able might like to assist the staff with taking the dog for a walk, this is a great chance for social interaction and a nice way for the resident to have a change of scenery.
7. Helping with afternoon tea - Encourage the residents to help with afternoon tea, putting the tea bags in the pot and arranging the all important biscuits!
8. Playing the piano - if you have a piano encourage your musical residents to play, they may even find the other residents sing along!
9. Dusting - If you have a resident who is particularly house proud they may prefer to do their own dusting. Encourage them to dust their TV, photo frames etc (anything within easy reach) with a colourful feather duster.
10. Daily Crosswords - many people like to complete the crosswords in newspapers over a cup of tea, this is a great way to keep the brain active in later life. You could use crosswords from a newspaper or create your own tailored to the resident, this can form a great conversation stater.

What are your top activities? We would love to know what works in your home.

Have a good week!

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