Alzheimer's Training

Alzheimer's SA recently moved to our premises.  Not only does this mean that we can pop in for some much needed advice every now and then, but it also gives us the opportunity to do continuous training with them.

On the 5th and the 6th and the 12th and the 13th of June, some of the management and professional staff of the Ron Smith Care Centre went for training.

Loraine Schirlinger, regional director of Gauteng (Alzheimer's SA) did most of the training, but Sylvia Birkhead (Occupational Therapist) also trained the attendees for one day.

Helen Petrie (Manager) and Avril Maltman (Matron) reported that they enjoyed the training and really learned a lot and gained valuable insight into the disease, thanks to the course.

Salina (OTT) and Sister Barbara Roos concentrating hard

Helen Petrie and Avril Maltman were delighted with the course 

Sister Maria Symons and former RSCC volunteer Beth Montocchio made some new friends while learning 

Sister Una van Zyl and Staffnurse Rosemary Nkhize reported that they learnt a lot of  things that they can go implement on their wards 

Loraine Schirlinger, waiting for the people to finish their work before continuing with the training

A very special thanks to Loraine and Sylvia for a very enjoyable course!

Love never grows old

John Lee and Cecily Ryder soaking up some sun in front of the OT Department 

Dave Hughes, resident from Elphin Lodge, spending some quality time with his wife, Valerie Hughes from the Ron Smith Care Centre.    

A Royal Week

This week there was a royal atmosphere at the Ron Smith Care Centre, as we celebrated the Queen's Diamond Jubilee through our various activities.

Here is the week's programme:

Monday:
AM:  Dancing to old British War Music.

This went wonderfully.  We danced to songs like Waltzing Matilda and Colonel Bogey and many more.  Some people even started marching to the music. This really was excellent for reminiscence therapy (the use of life histories - written, oral, or both - to improve psychological well-being).

PM:  We started making the crowns that we would need for the Royal Tea on Thursday.  We cut, pasted, decorated and painted.  The ladies from the Elphin Lodge Committee came to help us make some crowns.

Tuesday:

AM:  We read interesting facts about the Queen and looked at all the photos of the Jubilee event. The residents found this very interesting and had lots of conversations about the different royal family members and how they looked on the big day.  Some residents even shared their memories of when the Queen came to visit SA in 1947.  It brought back wonderful memories and we listened to God Save the Queen  and Pomp and Circumstance music while making the rest of the crowns.  We worked very hard and in the end we made about 80 crowns for the big event.

Lorna Smith, our star crown maker of the week.  She decorated more than 20 crowns on her own.

Wednesday:

AM:  We did a quiz about the Queen.  It's surprising how good some of our residents' long term memories still are and how well they know all the history with regard to the Queen.

You can complete the quiz online and see if you can do as well as our elderly people did.

Queen Quiz

PM:  They did some cognitive stimulation by doing a Royal Word Search.  You can do the same right over here.

Thursday:

AM:  The big day has finally arrived.  We had our Diamond Jubilee Royal Tea in the dining room.  It was a lovely morning.  Everyone was crowned as soon as they entered to be "Queen" or "King" for the day. A slideshow of the Queen was shown in the background.  Phyllis Phillips opened the morning with a few words about the historic value of the tea and her own memories of the Queen's visit to South Africa, her wedding etc.  We listened to the National Anthem of England as well as other Royal Marches and pieces.  We watched videos of the Queen's wedding day, Coronation, Family Life and some footage of the Diamond Jubilee Celebrations.  We had high tea with cucumber sandwiches and scones.  It was a lovely morning that brought tears to many residents' eyes.  But tears of good memories of the past, when they were still young and following every move that the Queen made, when they still had to go to the bioscope to see things like the Queen's Wedding, instead of just switching on the TV in the comfort of our homes like we do these days.  Everybody enjoyed the tea immensely and thanked us for organising such a special event. Scones and sandwiches were sent to the residents who weren't able to make it to the dining room.

Everybody crowned and having a royal time...

Watching the Queen's Wedding video.

Volunteer Denise McGee, assisting one of our residents Helen Viljoen to enjoy the lovely treats.

The OT team who worked hard to make the dining room ready for a hight tea.

It was a memorable morning and we had a lot of fun.  I learnt a lot of new things about the Queen whereas the elderly people reminisced about their younger years when they idolised the Queen.

Friday:

AM:  We showed a film called The Queen in OT.  The residents enjoyed the movie, even though this film doesn't have to do with her whole life, but focuses more on the time after Princess Diana's death.  Helen Mirren does an excellent job acting as the Queen.

Full of wit, humor, and pathos, Stephen Frears' moving portrait of the British royals during the period after Princess Diana's death features not one but two remarkable performances, that of Helen Mirren as Queen Elizabeth II and Michael Sheen as the newly-ordained Prime Minister Tony Blair. They embody their characters and lay bare the motivations behind these prominent people, giving viewers a glimpse into the inner workings of the British monarchy.

We did a repeat of the Jubilee Tea in Riverlodge 3 as a few of our residents with Alzheimers could not come to the Thursday one.  They had a ball of a time. One lady that came to the Thursday tea told me that she was just crowned the day before and she cannot believed that she was being crowned again.
It was amazing to see that even some of the most unresponsive residents' feet were tapping to the music from their past.

Vibrant volunteers Judy and Margie with Mrs Valerie Hues.

Everybody was crowned, from residents to caregivers...  Johanna said she enjoyed being a Queen.

Mrs Carol Davies started marching to the British War Music.

Everybody dancing and having a good time.

That was that for our Royal Week...

I believe everybody deserves to feel like a King or a Queen at least once in their lives...

Musical Tuesdays

As you might know, we've got a wonderful volunteer programme running in Riverlodge 3 (our Alzheimer's and Dementia section).  We have between 4 to 5 volunteers who come every morning of the week (different volunteers for each day) and help us with the stimulation groups with our residents living with Alzheimer's or Dementia.

The Tuesday volunteers recently decided that Tuesdays will now become musical mornings. Music really has a significant affect on elderly residents, whether they have Alzheimer's or not.  When I started working here almost 2 years ago, I was immediately introduced to the magic of Andre Rieu.  

One resident came to me after a movie that they did not enjoy as much as I was hoping they would and said:  "We once had a show of the most wonderful man with a violin.  We've never experienced such beauty, such wonder before.  You need to get that man for us."  

I was a little amused by her words, but I did ask around a bit and found out that she was talking about an Andre Rieu show they'd watched before.  I borrowed one of his shows from one of our other residents and put it on one Friday morning.  I had never been thanked so much in my life before.  The responses were overwhelming.  This is real therapy in a DVD case if  you are looking for a quick fix :)  

To get back to the Tuesday volunteers.  They have decided they want to simulate an Andre Rieu concert with our residents in Riverlodge 3.  They brought his CD and lots of musical instruments - from shakers to drums to bells - anything that can make a musical sound.  

They put on the CD and the concert was on.  It was a wonderful morning filled with laughter, music and movement.  The volunteers even blew up a lot of balloons so that they could throw them in the air at the end, something that apparently happens in the Andre Rieu concerts.  We had our own maestro morning and it was a blast.  

Here are some of the photos:

Caregivers joined in with the residents to make some music. 

Elsa Hofer and Hilda Holgate enjoying their morning. 

Volunteer Cathy Potgieter assisting Sheila Price to use the musical shaker.

Shirley Chambers enjoyed the music a lot and was moving and shaking along.  She also wanted to make Sara (as she calls the doll that we use for doll therapy) dance.  

Volunteer Liz Botsis blowing up the balloons for later in the show.

 Antonetti Ginesia enjoying the music.  

The balloons really were the perfect ending to a wonderful morning.  

I'm looking forward to many more musical mornings from these lovely volunteers.  

Baking

Recently in OT a few of our regular residents worked as a team to make wonderful muffins for tea time.

Baking is an amazingly therapeutic activity.  In the elderly it is associated with a lot of memories.  All of us has some memories of baking or cooking or being part of a baking activity or just tasting or smelling the baking goods.  If you are young and only bake every now and then, it can bring back memories from your grandmother's kitchen and the memories you made together or for most of the residents in our care centre, it can bring back memories from their own baking experiences in their kitchens.

It's also very therapeutic in the sense that it is very stimulating and involves most of your senses.  Combine it with some music in the background and there is not a sense that isn't involved.  Most of the time when we do baking, the ingredients get eaten up before the actual baking even happens, but we always end up with a nice end-product that they can have with their tea or coffee later.

Today's baking was run my one OTT, Dinah, and they made meaty muffins for tea time.

 June Lane mixing the ingredients.

Lorna Smith preparing the muffin pans.

Dinah the OTT assisting Cecily Ryder to read the recipe.

And the end product :)

Here is the recipe:

Meaty Muffins:

Ingredients:

• 200g mincemeat
• salt and pepper
• oil for frying
• 500ml (2 cups) cake flour
• 10ml (2 teaspoons) baking powder
• 5ml (1 teaspoon) salt
• 250ml (1 cup) cheese, grated
• 2 eggs 
• 250ml (1cup) milk
• 20ml (4 teaspoons) oil

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180°C 

Spray two muffin pans with non-stick spray 

Season the mince with salt and pepper

Heat the oil and fry the mince until cooked 

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together in a mixing bowl

Add the cheese and mix well

Beat the eggs, milk and oil together and add to the flour mixture, stirring until just mixed

Fill the muffin pan hollows halfway with half the muffin mixture

Spoon a little mince on top, followed by the remaining muffins mixture

Bake for 20 minutes until well risen and brown

Makes 24 muffins

Students

We always enjoy having the Occupational Therapy students from the University of the Witwatersrand. At the moment we've got 5 third-year students doing their practical blocks here at our care centre.  All the residents enjoy having these young ladies around and a few residents then enjoy the individual attention and treatment they get for the 3 weeks.

We look forward to having them again later in the year.

The 5 OT students hard at work in our boardroom.

OT student Janice Cowley with resident Antoinette (Tony) King

Staff Support Groups

In February we started staff support groups for our caregivers.  The idea was to give them an opportunity to share feelings and experiences and to feel supported and be a support to each other.

In February they got to know each other a little better and explored whether they have similar problems in their work environment with which they can either help each other or get more information on the topic presented to them in the next group.

In the second groups, they learnt a bit more on Alzheimer's and Dementia. Sometimes it is very difficult to understand the behaviour of a person living with Alzheimer's and Dementia and to have a bit more knowledge on the subject already makes a big difference.  They brainstormed on how to deal with different difficult situations at work and I shared some tips and ideas about handling different situations.

This month they are making collages about themselves.  They are focusing on things that they like and/enjoy and things that they are good at (not specifically at work).  So far it is a really wonderful experience working with the different caregivers and learning new and interesting things about them.  The idea behind the collage is to realise that they have so much more to offer than just nursing care and that they must not leave their personalities at home, but bring them to work.  If they are good at singing, they can sing to a lonely resident in their room.  If they are good at solving puzzles they can sit with a resident and do crossword puzzles or word searches.  They can challenge them to some new activities, like kicking a ball in the lounge for some exercise if they know they enjoy soccer in their free time.  The improvement in care will soon show once the caregivers bring a bit of liveliness and spontaneity, joined with nursing care.

Here are pictures of one of the support groups:

Caregivers Winnie, Dipuoa and Dora working hard on their collage.

Dora talking about the things she is good at.  

Winnie talking about the things that she likes.