The activities challenge - forecasts for nursing home activities professionals

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Kathy Hughes

Residents - and all of long-term care - are changing. And so will the activities profession

Twenty years ago nursing home residents could remember a time when there wasn't electricity, when the horse and buggy was the mode of transportation and a man on the moon was still the "man in the moon." Now our residents fall more into the group just preceding the "baby boomers"; they're accustomed to and comfortable with the new technologies. Their memories and leisure skills are different from those of people who entered old age 20 years ago.

A simple bingo game that was offered for socialization just 10 years ago isn't quite enough now; many of our residents want to go to the nearest casino and play "high stakes" bingo. For them, going out to lunch, means spending the day at the movies and eating in a food court at the local mall. Shopping no longer needs to be done at the five-and-dime, but can also be done on the 24-hour Home Shopping Channel. Tatting - a highly intricate form of lacemaking - has now made room for residents who learned how to knit on a machine. Gentlemen living at the facility would rather watch "Monday Night Football" than get together, drink coffee and have the newspaper read to them.

Activities will become smaller; more emphasis will be placed on specific group programs that serve to educate rather than entertain. Individual activities, with two or three residents gathered in an area to learn a new craft or to learn all about Sony PlayStations, will be the norm. Residents will opt to e-mail their great-grandchildren from their rooms or to order holiday gifts via their televisions