I will like to know how everyone is coping. How are you able to call your associates and residents down? What are some of the activities you are doig to keep your residnets active and calm?
The Still Hopes Wellness staff had a day and a half notice that our Fitness Center would close completely to our residents and staff. The residents were heartbroken and we wanted to do something right away to assure them that they would not be forgotten.
We have 2 very large apartment buildings and 1 smaller apartment building plus cottages in IL. The areas in front of the elevators on each floor of the 2 large apartment buildings are fairly large. The smaller apartment building has an activity room. We determined that we could space residents out at least 6 feet apart, fitting 6 in each elevator area on each floor. If we had more than 6, we could place residents in stagger fashion down the hallways. We could fit 10 residents in the activity room of the smaller building and keep them at least 6 feet apart. We scheduled 10 minute "stretch and flex" sessions at each building on each floor (6 floors in one building and 5 in the other.) We printed fliers with session times for each floor and left them in in-house mailboxes on Friday. Monday morning, we had a staff person in each building who led the exercise sessions - 10 minutes per floor with music. We finished a session, went to the next floor, did a session, went to the next floor, etc. We allowed 20 minutes for each session so that we had time to place residents in proper distance (they keep forgetting.) Cottage residents were told to choose a location and time and show up. We did one session in the activity room and would have done another if more than 10 attended. This was not time efficient for us staff and the halls are very warm. BUT, the residents LOVED it. We had residents attend that never come to the wellness center! We did stagger them down the hallways. We explained to them that is something we could put in place without practice and we wanted them to know we were thinking about them and had not "abandoned" them. They clapped and one floor sang For She's a Jolly Good Fellow as we got on the elevator. Monday morning we exercised 74 residents. Residents could either stand or sit on their walkers. I don't know if we'll keep to this plan after this week, but it really kept the residents engaged. We videotaped an exercise session for our VCTV today and we'll see how that goes. It will be broadcast in about 10 minutes.
I will like to know how everyone is coping. How are you able to call your associates and residents down? What are some of the activities you are doig to keep your residnets active and calm?
The Still Hopes Wellness staff had a day and a half notice that our Fitness Center would close completely to our residents and staff. The residents were heartbroken and we wanted to do something right away to assure them that they would not be forgotten. We have 2 very large apartment buildings and 1 smaller apartment building plus cottages in IL. The areas in front of the elevators on each floor of the 2 large apartment buildings are fairly large. The smaller apartment building has an activity room. We determined that we could space residents out at least 6 feet apart, fitting 6 in each elevator area on each floor. If we had more than 6, we could place residents in stagger fashion down the hallways. We could fit 10 residents in the activity room of the smaller building and keep them at least 6 feet apart. We scheduled 10 minute "stretch and flex" sessions at each building on each floor (6 floors in one building and 5 in the other.) We printed fliers with session times for each floor and left them in in-house mailboxes on Friday. Monday morning, we had a staff person in each building who led the exercise sessions - 10 minutes per floor with music. We finished a session, went to the next floor, did a session, went to the next floor, etc. We allowed 20 minutes for each session so that we had time to place residents in proper distance (they keep forgetting.) Cottage residents were told to choose a location and time and show up. We did one session in the activity room and would have done another if more than 10 attended. This was not time efficient for us staff and the halls are very warm. BUT, the residents LOVED it. We had residents attend that never come to the wellness center! We did stagger them down the hallways. We explained to them that is something we could put in place without practice and we wanted them to know we were thinking about them and had not "abandoned" them. They clapped and one floor sang For She's a Jolly Good Fellow as we got on the elevator. Monday morning we exercised 74 residents. Residents could either stand or sit on their walkers. I don't know if we'll keep to this plan after this week, but it really kept the residents engaged. We videotaped an exercise session for our VCTV today and we'll see how that goes. It will be broadcast in about 10 minutes.
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Jim April 22, 2020
GREAT work Denise !