Meaningful, person-centered activities are important to providing holistic care to residents. As you know, you're required by Rule to offer at least 6 hours of meaningful activities to residents each week. Keep in mind, however, that this is the minimum.
How can you best offer activities that are meaningful to residents?
Include residents in this process and ask residents what they enjoy doing. Check in with them regularly to see if they still enjoy certain activities.
Don't overthink it. Much of what brings joy to a person through activity does not require a big budget and a lot of moving parts. Sometimes, the most simple of pleasures through activities become the most special. For example, making a cup of sun tea together and quenching your thirst in the shade with good music on can be the best part of a person's day.
Provide different types of activities, such as auditory and visual activities, like music, reading stories, personal reading, and looking through photo albums. Offer sensory activities, such as hand massages (with consent), chair balloon volley, pet visits, drawing, or painting. Also, provide engaging, interactive activities, such as board or card games, building a bird house, planting seeds, outings, cooking/food preparation, or a movie night with snacks.
How can you best document activities to stay in compliance?
Make sure to take the necessary time to document in each resident's records what activities you offered, the participation of the resident, and the amount of time the resident took part in the activity.
What if a resident declines to participate? Document they declined participation but note the time the activity would have been offered. If you notice the resident is declining to participate in an activity several times, this may indicate it is not an activity that is meaningful to them. It is important to take time with activities to both stay in compliance and to keep residents active and engaged in activities that are meaningful to them.
