Working at my trade table
About Me
I have been writing manuals for leisure staff working in aged care for the last sixteen years. My manuals contain ideas on craft, reminiscing programs and games. My books also provide a practical guide to planning and documenting suitable leisure activities for clients in residential and day care facilities. Inow produce
I work as an in-house consultant and trainer to recreation staff in aged care and have had more than twenty years of work experience with older people. I am also currently involved in providing activities for clients with early memory loss through Alzheimer’s Australia NSW.I also do workshops on a variety of topics such as reminiscing programs and art and craft practical sessions.
I also now do art and craft with clients at their facility presenting sessions on art as therapy. If you feel I could add art as therapy to your program please give me a call (Sydney area only).
In my younger days I had worked as an infants teacher. In order to be effective we were expected to plan and prepare programs. When I first started working as a craft tutor for aged clients in a nursing home, I found there were very few suitable resources. I decided to write my own manual of craft based on the successful activities I tried. Traditional arts and crafts were adapted to suit my frail aged clients. Keep it Simple was my first book and I found I had a market for it. Keep it Simple has now been completely rewritten. I have kept many of the original ideas and added new ones. In all there are more than 40 ideas to try. I have also just rewritten The Crafty Therapist called the New Crafty Therapist and it has 50+ art and craft ideas to try.
Reminiscing is a useful tool for activity staff. Remembering events relating to times when the clients were younger and more active can help restore self-esteem. One of the tools of reminiscing that works well is recalling past events based on the popular culture of a time. This involves researching events, music, film and lifestyle of people from the nineteen-thirties to the sixties and beyond. The programs I used became my next three reminiscing books- The World I Remember, The More I Remember and Do you Remember? Each program is presented in large print with simple black and white drawings. The program includes questions that encourage reminiscing and quizzes on things that my clients would remember. My purpose was to help younger therapists lock into the popular culture of their clients and encourage creative programming.
Recreation therapists need to know how to document care plans and evaluate their work as well how to implement client-orientated activities. The Clever Therapist was written with this in mind.
Music is a great tool for enjoyaable activities for older residents particularly for those with dementia. For this reason I stock a variety of singalong DVD’s on this website that can be used at any time especially when there is no opportunity to have entertainers, visit the facility or centre. I also stock ambient DVD’s that work very well with dementia clients. Both types of DVD’s work well used as one on one with clients who have behavours of concern or for dementia activities.
My husband Stephen has done the art work and photography for my resources and has added his own sense of humour.
Presentation in Melbourne for Redleaf seminar 3.3.11
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