Seniors and E-Readers

A few months ago, I got a Kindle for my birthday and it is awesome! I am reading more now than I ever use to. I started asking the residents at my retirement community what they suggested I read next. When I explained that I just got a Kindle, I began to learn from my "readers" who else had a Kindle or E-Reader. I found that my e-readers are like a quiet cult in the community. They all know who has what device and have sent many of their "members" into my office to share in the excitement of my new discovery. They were thrilled to be able to help me and to make suggestions to a "newbie." I never thought that I would be getting lessons from the residents on technology, but I received a couple of very good pointers.

The other day, I had a resident come to me and ask about our community's wireless Internet access. I discovered that he was trying to get started on his new Kindle and did not have wireless in his apartment. It was such a thrill to be able to get him hooked up and watch the excitement as he down loaded his first book. I am still amazed with the advancements in technology that I've seen in my lifetime. I can not imagine how someone twice my age must feel when the realize that they've just received a book on a handheld device!

As an activities director with independent living residents, I know that most of the residents want to read from their Kindles or E-Readers on their own, in the privacy of their own home or when they are waiting in the doctor's office. I do wonder, however, if there is a way to bring out the members of the quiet cult to meet and share ideas with one another in a formal setting. We do have a book club that meets regularly, but it is designed to be a small group so that they can have discussions about the book. Food for thought. I'd be curious to hear from you if you have anything structured in your community for Kindle users. I think that I will put out an interest sheet and see what happens. I'll keep you posted!

Cruise Escort's Emergency Guide

In light of the recent Costa Concordia cruise ship accident last week, I was thinking, "what if I was on board escorting a group of residents and such a tragedy struck?" I have been so lucky in my career as activities director the past two decades to escort residents from my retirement community on plenty of cruises and this has never crossed my mind. I will say that I've thought about a fire on board, but not a ship taking on water or listing on its side.

There are certain procedures that I like to follow when I am escorting residents on an overnight trip. Before leaving our community, I ask the resident to complete a medical information form. This form covers what medicines the resident is currently taking, if they have any medical conditions that an emergency doctor would need to know about, and their emergency contact information. I keep this information with me while I am on the trip. Our community nursing department has all this information, but I feel better knowing that I have the information easily accessible in case of an emergency.

When I am on a cruise with the residents, one of the first things that I do when I get on board is to take a list of the residents in my group to the infirmary. I make sure that the staff knows who I am to the group and how to reach me. I tell them that I have the emergency information that will assist them in case they have a situation with anyone on the list. I also remind the residents that if they go to the infirmary, hospital in port, or have any other concerns, be it for themselves, or for someone else in the group, that they should notify me as soon as possible. 

Keeping in contact with your group members is very important to the success of "keeping yourself in the loop." I set a time before dinner every night when I can meet with those in the group. I usually pick a bar that is near to the dining room and hang out there, or find out where most of the group likes to meet and join them. I enjoy this time with them because I can learn how their day was, if there are any issues, medical or otherwise, etc. with people that I may not see otherwise. I will say that if I don't see people at this meeting time, I usually go to their dinner table and speak to the table to check in with the residents. This, however, is changing as the cruise ships now offer different dining venues and open seating, so my game plan has also shifted to include phone calls to their cabins to see how they are doing.

When a resident does have an emergency situation on board, my job is to help them as much as I can. Providing the medical emergency form is step one. Contacting the community so that they can contact others who need to know is next. I also connect with my travel agent, who starts working with the ship to get the resident the best care possible, which sometimes means bringing them home from far away destinations. If the resident needs to leave the ship, I work with the cruise line to get their personal items packed and ready to get off of the ship. I know that this provides piece of mind for the ailing resident when they know that I am in their cabin packing their belongings instead of a crew member from the ship.

If you've escorted trips before, you know that each time your phone rings, you pray that it is nothing serious. I have had friends in the business who have had a resident pass away on board. I haven't had that happen, but I have had residents stay behind in a hospital on a few different occasions.  

If there was a big ship-wide emergency, such as the one last week with the Concordia, then as much as I wish I could, nothing I could have done would have changed the situation. I guess that afterwards, if I was lucky enough to be a survivor, I would begin to locate residents and address their needs the best that I could. There is no way to say to them, "if there is an emergency, meet me at (fill in the blank)." As I sit here in the safety of my own home, I think that the likelihood of this ever happening is very slim. I also am thinking that it would be wise to always have the list of resident's name and cabin number with you at all times, maybe on a smart-phone or tablet. Hmmm, another reason to see about getting work to buy me one!  

My thoughts tonight are with the passengers and their families who are still missing and for those who died in this terrible accident. I hope that for all the bad that has come out of this terrible ordeal, that some good follows.... such as those working on board the ships becoming more in tune to what it would really be like when a crisis hits and how people react (staff and passengers) and work towards improving  the outcome for the future. I wish I knew it there was a group leader on board and what his/her experience was.... but until then, I hope that we will never know it for ourselves. Safe travels!

Super Bowl Party for Seniors

It is almost here! The 46th Super Bowl game will be held on Sunday, February 5 in Indinapolis. Each year, residents in my retirement community want to have a viewing party for the big game. I believe that it is a fun program to make an activity out of, but not something that I must do every year. Mostly, I don't have this each year because there are not to many ways to change it up, so I don't want to have it become boring. (This is where your ideas would be great to hear!!)

This year, we are going to have a party and I'd like to share with you the plans for the evening. Residents are now signing up for the program which is set to start at 6:00 p.m.  This time is perfect in my community because we still serve dinner at noon on Sundays and the residents usually like to attend for the food, if for no other reason. (I do charge them a fee for the food.) We will have the game showing on our big screen tv in the auditorium and tables and chairs set up for the residents to eat and watch the game from.

I like to provide a few Super Bowl trivia questions to ask when there is a lull in the game. I've tried to do these questions and/or other games during the commercials, but that does not work well because some many viewers are not into the game, but want to see the commercials. Check out this teacher's website that has a lot of free printable games just for the Super Bowl.  I will give them out and let them work on the questions/games at their own pace and share the answers at the end of the evening. One game that I've used before is a Super Bowl word-find that I know that they will like. I also will be taking a game called Cornhole to the party. My sister-in-law gave it to our family for Christmas and we play it a lot. I thought that the residents can play casually if they want to during the party.

As I was working on this article, I found a few other Super Bowl party game ideas that I think might work in my retirement community. They are the following:

Don't say "football" game. At the beginning of halftime, give your residents small paper footballs to stick onto their chests with double-sided tape. Tell everyone they're not allowed to say the word "football" while in conversation during halftime. If they hear someone use the word, they can take the football from the offending party. The person who collects the most footballs is the winner.

Football Bean Bag Toss. If you have enough room, mark out a small football field with masking tape, and be sure to mark the yardage since it will be necessary for scoring the game. Divide your guests into two teams and have them take turns tossing bean bags onto the other team's side of the field. Keep score of the yardage points where the bags land, with a touchdown scoring 0 points. The team with the lowest yardage wins.

Organize a game of hot potato with a football. The last person left in the circle is the winner.

I think that I will try the hot potato game. and do it at half-time. I already know that there will be less people there, they will have already eaten and that they are not interested in the halftime show.

I also found a website that has some other free games, but I'm not sure if my group of seniors will do them as they are geared towards kids, but maybe your folks are younger, so, I'll pass it along. Take a look at http://party-games-etc.com/super_bowl_games.htm

I do have a resident who likes to make the gambling square grid and gets residents to buy a block. That works well for me, because I am not permitted to run any kind of gambling at my program. If it is resident driven.... then it is fine.

Food for the Super Bowl party has been either hot dogs, sub sandwiches or pizza. Like a said above, the culinary department serves dinner at noon, so there is nobody in the kitchen to keep things warm or serve it. In the past, the hot dogs have been held in warmers and the cold-cuts were held in the refrigerator in the kitchen and then I brought them into the Auditorium. The pizza was delivered to the auditorium. We usually have soda.... because I'm not allowed to serve alcohol at any of my events.

For decorations, I use the team balloons that I usually find in the grocery store or local party store. I buy a few of them and then enlarge the clusters with solids in the colors of the team. I also buy napkins with the Super Bowl logo on it to add to the excitment. Or, you can keep it neutral and base your decorations around the logo below.

I try to get the residents to wear the color of the team that they are cheering for, or a jersey for a team that they like. I try to make it a fun night and hope that the residents stay for the whole game, but it never seems to work out that way. I've announced that the food would be served at half time, but that is a bit late for the residents to eat and they usually get upset with me for not feeding them at the party when they want to eat. So now, I have the food ready when the party starts, and usually by half-time, I have less then half the people I started with. At the end of the game, I usually have a handful of viewers there.

As you can tell, this is not one of my favorite events, but I'm always glad when I have one of these parties, becuase the residents appreciate it. I'd love to hear from you on  your party - especially if you have a successful party!

ps. Take a look at my other theme ideas listed in the category listed on the left or start at Thinking About Themes.

Unique Holidays to Celebrate

Now that the craziness of the holidays are behind you as Activities Director in your retirement community, it is time to start thinking ahead. How will you make 2012 special for the seniors that live in your community?

One of the ideas that my company mandates is to have special theme nights at least 6 times a year. To me, that is perfect because it takes about that long to get everything organized for a theme party. Take a look at my postings on this blog about theme parties for some new ideas. I would love to hear what you are doing too, so please feel free to comment below so that we can all learn from one another. After being an activities director for 24 years, it is always nice to find some new ideas and I use the web a lot.

This year I am doing some of the "old time favorites," such as Chinese New Year, Mardi Gras, Safari. etc. But, I am also adding in a few new ideas to my list! The new ones  that I will be doing are "A Night in Havana" and "Old Hollywood." (I've done Hollywood, movie and Breakfast at Tiffany's before, but this will have a new twist.) Check back on the blog as they year goes on and I'll share ideas and pictures of these new theme parties.

I also like to throw in a few smaller events onto my calendar, that make people simply have a reason to dress differently, eat differently, or give the residents a new subject to talk about or an idea for me to program a special movie, lecture, demonstration, etc.  Examples of this might be Crazy Sock day, Wildflower Week, Honey Month, etc. I found a great website for these special days. Check it out. There is more to the site also that is worth looking at.

Take a few minutes, read the list of unique holidays over and deceid what you think would work best in our community, and then write them on your calendar! When the time comes closer, you can move ahead with the idea or skip it.....and know one but you will know.

ps. Take a look at my other theme ideas listed in the category listed on the left or start at Thinking About Themes.

Good Public Relations for Retirement Community

Having Wii in my community has been an awesome PR item - especially since the team rocks, with the help of the Wii Bowler of the Year as the captain! Read the stories below:

http://www.bocaratontribune.com/st-andrews-south-striker-joe-riccobene-named-national-senior-league-wii-bowler-of-the-year/

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/south-sports-joe-riccobene-captain-of-the-sas-2065454.html?cxtype=rss_news

Also, check out my other articles on this blog about Wii Bowling.

Organizing Notes

As I was putting away my active files from 2011, I ran across notes that I had made on scrap paper that were important to save. These were ideas that I had made for theme nights, a new resident welcome party and other activities in my retirement community. As I filed away the obvious items, I was left with these odd pieces of papers and really did not have the time, or the desire, to type them, so that I could save them on my computer (as I mentioned in my first post). I put them aside for a few days and then realized that I had a scanner and could use it instead. (Think about that commercial for the neat desk organizer they are promoting these days.)

Once I scanned my scraps of paper, I was able to file them into the categories that I have created on my computer. I know that the next time I plan my program, I will go to that file on my computer first. I like to have things on the computer instead of in a file cabinet. I don't know about you, but when things are messy, I can not work well. In a fairy-tale world, I'd have everything scanned and on the computer - but that is not reality. I can, however, start adding more and more onto the computer as I move ahead. Think about how you work best. This may work for you too.... and then again, it might not be worth the effort. Only you will know.  Also, make sure that you have a back-up of all your documents. For me, my company backs everything up on a regular basis, as long as I am saving files to the proper drive.  It is a new year, make your life easier and get organized!!