1. Federal Law, OBRA,
states that an activity department must be directed
by a “qualified professional.” One of the ways to
become qualified is to become a Certified Activity
Professional.
2. NCCAP certification is recognized by CMS
(formerly Health Care Financing Administration) as
an organization that certifies activity
professionals who work specifically with the
elderly.
3. NCCAP certification assures administrators and
surveyors that you have met certain professional
standards to become certified.
4. Many administrators
will only hire activity professionals who are
certified.
5. Some administrators offer a higher salary to a
certified professional.
6. Become NCCAP certified so others will know that
you are nationally qualified and offering quality
activity service to your residents/clients.
Note: The National Certification Council for
Activity Professionals (NCCAP) is one of the
Certifying Bodies recognized by Federal law, and
incorporated in many state regulations. NCCAP is the
ONLY national organization that exclusively
certifies activity professionals who work with the
elderly.
As most of you know, the new MDS 3.0 is set to be
implemented on October 1, 2010. The changes related
to the Activity Director include a change of
responsibility to Section F rather then Section N
(which has now been replaced with Medication). This
change has some of Activity Directors quite
frustrated. The issue, for them, is with the content
of Section F. They feel the questions being
evaluated deal more directly with ADL's and
therefore should be evaluated by another department,
such as Nursing. Others, though, feel it has great
advantages such as increased resident's voice.
Either way this change is coming and it is fast
approaching. Join in on the Message Board at
www.activitydirector.net and let us know how you
feel.
Note: CMS may still make changes that will alter the
final draft before its October 1, 2010 release date.
New CEU
Instructor!
Activity Directors Network is proud to welcome
Angela Futch to the team! Angela graduated from
Stephen F. Austin State University in 1997 with a
degree in Psychology and Sociology. She currently
works as an Activity Director for a 370 resident
facility. Her first contribution to the profession
and to Activity Directors Network is our newest
CEU Workshop, Activities for Limited English
Speaking Residents, by Angela Futch.
Activities for Limited
English Speaking Residents -8 CEUs
$79.95
Activity Directors must be more creative when
dealing with residents who have difficulty with the
English language. It is common for people who have
lived in America for many years and speak English
fluently to lose the language as they show signs of
dementia. Also, there is a growing population of
individuals who have never learned the language or
have moved to America recently and find themselves
surrounded by strangers with whom they cannot
communicate with. It is the Activity Director’s job
to seek out and discover activities to enrich the
lives of those they serve; no matter the language
barrier. This course will teach you to find your
inner-creativity and offer activities that do not
require English to be successful. Every resident,
English speaking or not, will benefit from this
course material.
Workshop Objectives:
Understand barriers that residents and staff face
when there is a communication problem.
Be able to analyze which sources the Activity
director has and which are needed.
Find Activities and programs that benefit and enrich
the lives of residents.
Learn what steps to take in order to utilize the
community resources.
Have a clear understanding of the Activity
Director’s role when dealing with non-English
speaking residents.
One of our consultants came across this website with
Activity Director job listings and thought it would
be a good resource for some of you that are job
hunting. Check it out at
http://www.indeed.com/q-activities-director-jobs.html
Mothballs In My Attic - By Cindy
O'Neill
This is a nostalgic
book that contains fill in the blank ONE word
answers that bring you back to your childhood. One
word leads you to a myriad of feelings and
sensations and conversation.
Mothballs In My Attic
is a resource tool used by activity planners in the
medical field as well as caregivers for dementia
patients. The book can be used for both individual
or group sessions and is a wonderful memory jogger.
There are 12 chapters and over 220 fill in the blank
with ONE word questions that stimulate conversation
and reminiscing.
How it Works:
Simple questions
are answered by you about your childhood or
growing up times. You answer with one word to
complete the sentence, and then it happens: the
MIMA Moment!
Example:
My childhood
kitchen table
shape was________________.
When you answer the question with one word, your
mind then goes back to your childhood home and
fills in the rest of the story: where you sat at
the table, what time you ate dinner every night,
what placemats, plates, drinking glasses were
used, and so on. The process of a one-word
answer brings the experience of the entire
scenario. Suddenly, you are transformed to that
time, and instantly, you have experienced a MIMA
Moment. The inevitable smile is unavoidable.
Price: Normally
- $19.95 :
ON
SALE - $14.95 Product Code: MothAttic
Month Long Events
American Indian
Heritage
Audio Book Appreciation
Cataract Awareness
Golf Month
What Will Be Your Legacy Month
Week Long Events
Nat'l Clown 1-7
Simplify Your Life 1-7
Psychic 2-6
Elvis 10-16
Friendship Day
Description:
The first week in August is International Friendship
Day, do this arts and crafts to celebrate.
Instructions:
~Ask your residents make bracelets for a friend,
using thread, beads, or pipe cleaners. Ask them to
use the colors that best represent their friend and
the friendship. Then help the residents deliver
these bracelets.
~Colors Red symbolizes: action, confidence, courage,
vitality, honesty
~Pink symbolizes:
love, beauty, kind
~Orange symbolizes:
vitality with endurance, energetic
Green symbolizes
peace, relaxing, harmony, responsibility
When I Was 21...
Description:
This is a great way to open up to your residents and
create a meaningful conversation. By Jenny Moore
Materials:
~Picture of yourself at that age, or a picture of
any of the staff members at that age that are very
connected to the residents
~Seating area
~Timer
Instructions:
~Walk with the residents to the outdoor gazebo and
have them sit down on the benches. The ones in
wheelchairs can be turned to face the benches
creating a circle.
~Sit down and tell them you have something to show
them. Show them the picture of yourself or someone
they know and are very fond of at the age of 21.
~Laugh with them and describe what the person in the
picture is wearing, where it was taken, and the
circumstances surrounding the picture.
~After they have all looked at the picture and
passed it around, tell them that we are going to
play a little reminiscing game.
~Start with the oldest resident and explain the
rules will be: you will have five minutes to talk
about where you were at the age of 21 and what your
life was like then.
~Set a timer and when the bell goes off, move to the
next person in age order.
~Encourage quiet and for everyone to listen and not
interrupt. Explain that it is a good way to get to
know each other and where they have been.
Precautions: Some will need time to reflect,
give them all a few minutes to think before you
begin the game. If they do not want to participate,
don't force them. Just let them listen. Some may be
saddened by a bad memory or will not be able to
remember at all. Be prepared for anything to be
said.
Adaptations or Variations: Any age could be
used, but use a milestone age, like 30, 40, 50, etc.
Leadership Hints: Keep it simple. Do your homework
if the picture is of someone else. Let them guess
who the person is in the photo to make it more fun
and tell them the story of the person and the
picture, before you reveal who it is. Make it fun!
Antiques Road Show
Description:
Encourage reminiscing with a hands-on demonstration.
Provide social interaction with the outside
community volunteers. By Angela Futch
Materials:
~Antiques from early
America
~Antiques from the 1900-1960’s
Instructions:
~Locate an owner of an antique store in your town
and ask the owner to bring several items for a show
and tell to your facility.
~Have the owner talk about each item, give them a
price for what the item cost when it was new and how
much it is worth now.
~Ask residents if they had ever owned an item like
it and how to use it.
~Pass the items around and let the resident touch or
hold them.
~Letting the resident touch and hold the items will
bring back memories and aid in reminiscing.
We have added some
great new products to the store! Take some time to
go over these new items and other great products we
have in our online store. Start implementing new
games, puzzles, videos, etc. in your monthly
activities today.
Visit the online store
at
www.activitydirector.net/shop
Attention Activity Directors! NEW ENTERTAINER IN
TEXAS
“A
Time For Memories”
With Classic Jazz
Artist - Wes Yeager
Classic Jazz Hits From
The 50s and 60s. Made Famous By The Masters. Frank
Sinatra, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole And Others!
The Seniors Will Be
Smiling And Tapping Their Feet As Wes Yeager Adds
His Unique Voice And Style To These Timeless Hits!
Call Or E-Mail Now To
Schedule A Performance As Rates Are Priced Low For
Summer!
281-508-5468
wes_yeager@yahoo.com
The Memory
Programs™ Complete Box Set includes more than
3000 digital slides covering 5 topics: 1940s
Nostalgia, Presidential History, Dog Days,
Proverbial Clues, and By the Numbers. Dog Days is a
comprehensive dog history game that covers 38 of the
most popular dog breeds. This program includes
historic and common information on each breed. Dog
Days covers more than 1000 slides for the selection
of reading, trivia, and picture recognition.
Presidential History Version covers nearly a century
of American history. Presidential History covers
more than 400 slides. Chapters contain reading,
trivia, picture recognition, and picture puzzles. By
the Numbers contains a simple math flash card game
covering multiplication, addition, and subtraction.
Each flash card is color enhanced to draw upon each
player’s interest. Proverbial Clues is a proverb
trivia game with the most popular sayings seniors
grew up with throughout their lifetime. Each
question is designed with colorful graphics that
stimulate interesting memories. In this program
there are over 200 questions with 100 pictures
associated with each memory.
A DVD player and DVD remote control are required for
use. The system is complete with all the DVD disks
from each of the Memory Programs™ topic, an
instruction manual, and access to an online
instructional video.
We stand behind the quality of our products and
guarantee your satisfaction. If for any reason you
are not completely satisfied with our products, you
may return it within 30 days of purchase for an
exchange or refund of the product price and
applicable tax.
Price: $98.95 Product Code: MP_BOX
Memory Programs™
Presidential History covers nearly a century of
American history. The program contains more than 400
slides of reading, trivia, picture recognition, and
picture puzzles.
A DVD player and DVD remote control are required for
use. The system is complete with all the DVD disks
from each of the Memory Programs™ topic, an
instruction manual, and access to an online
instructional video.
We stand behind the quality of our products and
guarantee your satisfaction. If for any reason you
are not completely satisfied with our products, you
may return it within 30 days of purchase for an
exchange or refund of the product price and
applicable tax.
Price: $34.95 Product Code: MP_PH
Memory Programs™
Proverbial Clues is a proverb trivia game with
the most popular sayings seniors grew up with
throughout their lifetime. Each question is designed
with colorful graphics that stimulate interesting
memories. In this program there are over 200
questions with 100 pictures associated with each
memory.
A DVD player and DVD remote control are required for
use. The system is complete with all the DVD disks
from each of the Memory Programs™ topic, an
instruction manual, and access to an online
instructional video.
We stand behind the quality of our products and
guarantee your satisfaction. If for any reason you
are not completely satisfied with our products, you
may return it within 30 days of purchase for an
exchange or refund of the product price and
applicable tax.
Price:
$24.95 Product Code: MP_PC
Memory Programs™
Dog Days is a comprehensive dog history game
that covers 38 of the most popular dog breeds. This
program includes historic and common information on
each breed. Dog Days covers more than 1000 slides
for the selection of reading, trivia, and picture
recognition.
A DVD player and DVD remote control are required for
use. The system is complete with all the DVD disks
from each of the Memory Programs™ topic, an
instruction manual, and access to an online
instructional video.
We stand behind the quality of our products and
guarantee your satisfaction. If for any reason you
are not completely satisfied with our products, you
may return it within 30 days of purchase for an
exchange or refund of the product price and
applicable tax.
Price: $34.95 Product Code: MP_DD
Memory Programs™ By
the Numbers contains a simple math flash card game
covering multiplication, addition, and subtraction.
Each flash card is color enhanced to draw upon each
player’s interest.
A DVD player and DVD remote control are required for
use. The system is complete with all the DVD disks
from each of the Memory Programs™ topic, an
instruction manual, and access to an online
instructional video.
Price: $24.95 Product Code: MP_BTN
Memory Programs™
1940’s Nostalgia covers the most popular stars
of the 1940s. Multiple program levels cover picture
recognition, picture comparison, and picture puzzles
of each famous person of the 1940s.
A DVD player and DVD remote control are required for
use. The system is complete with all the DVD disks
from each of the Memory Programs™ topic, an
instruction manual, and access to an online
instructional video.
Price: $24.95 Product Code: MP_NST
The Activity Directors
Network is proud to present
"The Activity Directors Bible: Policy and Procedure
Manual. "
This manual is
intended to be utilized by the facility and adapted
accordingly.
This 80 page manual is
perfect for the Activity Professional to use as a
reference when dealing with internal facility
situations.
Some of the
topics covered in great
detail include:
Job Description
Review (with in depth descriptions of each
required task)
Guidelines for
Resident Council and Quality Assurance
MSDS and Related
Policies
Managing the
Activity Budget
Resident's Rights
Use of Volunteers
and Fundraising
Pet Policies and
Animal Maintenance
One-on-One
Planning and Programming
Calendar
Evaluation and Facility Population Assessment
Staff Orientation
and Much More...
Along with this
abundance of information comes multiple
forms to be
incorporated into your activity program
Price: Normally
- $75.00 :
ON
SALE - $55.00 Product Code: PandP
Liven Up Your Exercise Program
6 CEU
ONLINE WORKSHOP - SALE PRICE $39.95*
Physical activities
are important to maintain our senior’s health. Once
way to accomplish this is to implement a daily
exercise/fitness regime into the monthly activity
calendar. This exercise program needs to be exciting
and different, to keep your senior's interest.
Workshop Objectives:
This workshop will provide multiple physical
activities that can be implemented into your
activity calendar and compliment your existing
programming. These activities are available for
immediate download and "Click-n-Print" directly from
the workshop's homepage to create an offline manual
for easy reference!
Activity Analysis: How it Works
8 CEU
ONLINE WORKSHOP - SALE PRICE $59.95*
The Activity Analysis
is a very significant part of providing effective
activities for your residents. It is used to
breakdown activities into components or domains. The
Activity Analysis will guide the Activity Director
to understand what is required from each activity.
Understanding the breakdown of an activity will help
create an effective activity program and to better
met the needs of your residents. I have combined
three different activity analysis formats to create
one extremely effective format to help the Activity
Director understand how to evaluate activities.
Workshop Objectives:
Understand the format of the activity analysis
Understand different types of activities and how
they breakdown into specific components
Learning how to effective use the activity analysis
in your programming
*Sale
Price good until August 15, 2010
"Old People Prefer Happy Memories: Science
Confirms the Obvious"
In the
magazine, Popular Science, they have a
section called Science Confirms the Obvious where,
you guessed it, science confirms the obvious. In
this section it covers many topics in which have
been confirmed via new studies being conducted
throughout the last couple of years. This topic in
particular I thought would be of interest to those
of you interacting with old people on a daily basis,
where I am sure you already came to the conclusion
that old people prefer happy memories... it's not
rocket science, it's just science.
The
Study
"There Are Age-Related Changes in Neural
Connectivity during the Encoding of Positive, but
Not Negative, Information," Cortex, May 2009
The Findings:
An international team of psychologists put a group
of people aged 19 through 31 and a group aged 61
through 80 into a functional MRI and showed
participants positive, neutral and negative
photographs. It turned out the brains of younger and
older people responded similarly when they saw
gunshot wounds, but for the older people, their
ventro medial pre-frontal cortex and amygdala, which
are involved in emotion, in the hippocampus, which
governs memory, all responded when they saw positive
images like kittens, indicating the formation of a
stronger memory. The younger brain showed no such
effect. The researchers think this may explain "the
positivity effect", the idea that as people age,
positive memories tend to get stronger while bad
memories fade more quickly.
Why Bother?
We are not sure exactly why older folks look on the
bright side, but before this study we weren't even
sure if there was a biological basis for the
phenomenon. The next step is to establish whether
the positivity effect is simply a part of aging or
whether, as older adults feel time slipping away,
they are more likely to emphasize the positive. This
could help determine if there are difference in the
memory encoding between elderly people with
depression and those with a cheerier disposition.
August 3, 2010 is
National Watermelon Day! Celebrate by making this
classic preserve recipe with your residents and
finish off with a watermelon seed spitting contest!
Instructions:
Get a melon with thick rind. Peel off all green
portion using only the white part of the rind. Cut
in small squares. Soak in mild salt water overnight
(1/2 cup salt to 1 gallon of water). Drain and cook
in clear water about 30 minutes or until tender.
Drain well. For 11 cups or 4 lbs. of melon rind,
make a syrup of 9 cups sugar, 8 cups water, 4 lemons
sliced, and add 4 t. stick cinnamon and 4 t. cloves
(tie spices in cheesecloth bag). Boil the syrup,
lemon and spices 5 minutes before adding the rinds.
Add rinds and cook until transparent and clear.
Remove spice bag, pour
into jars and seal.
Cleo's
Favorite Waffles
August 24, 2010 is
National Waffle Day! Celebrate by making a waffle
breakfast for your residents or have a Waffle
Fundraiser and charge the staff for a waffle
breakfast with all proceeds benefiting the Activity
Department.
Ingredients:
3 cups sifted flour
5 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. sugar
1/4 cup melted butter
or margarine
2 cups milk
4 eggs separated
Directions: Add melted butter to dry
ingredients. Add milk gradually. Beat egg yolks and
then mix well. Fold in beaten egg whites. Heat
waffle iron. Pour 1 1/4 - 1 1/2 cup batter in center
of the full section and spread evenly to corners.
Close lid. Leave lid closed until light goes on and
steaming has stopped.
Source: Seems Like I Done It This A-Way,
Second Edition (1980), By Cleo Stiles Bryan
"
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