Activities co-ordinators are becoming an ever more important role for care homes

Activities co-ordinators are becoming a regular feature in residential care home staff teams.

Whether a dedicated person who has been employed to ensure residents can lead satisfying and stimulating lives, or a voluntary role taken up by a member of support staff, the importance of older people’s social health is being taken seriously by care home owners.

The National Association for Providers of Activities for Older People (NAPA) has described that an essential element for any successful activity is to get to know the individual resident, in their activity provision for benchmarking good practise in care homes.

NAPA promotes the importance of gaining knowledge about a resident’s individual life stories, experiences, and interests. As well as this, being aware of older people’s current level of physical, cognitive and psychological ability will result in the selection of personally meaningful activities that will most engage that person.

Professor Martin Green of English Community Care Association said: "Activity coordinators play a central role in delivering purposeful activities that stimulate residents and improve their wellbeing. The impact of purposeful activity is important for all residents and particularly for those people living with dementia.

“A good activity coordinator is a vital resource for any provider who is committed to delivering a good quality of life to their residents."

Making sure a person has the correct ‘fit’ with activities is the responsibility of the activity coordinator. This includes creating activities that will be within a person’s achievable capabilities, but not too simple.

Alison Teader is the arts and education coordinator for the Central and Cecil Care Group and described the importance of activity coordinators role: “One key aspect of coordinating activities is to ensure there is variety in the programme of daily events. We gain lots of information about what type of things residents might be interested during resident meetings, informal chats and through their relatives, at relative meetings.”

“Relatives can offer suggestions of stimulus which will interest their loved ones, as it is important to think about the specific interests of the individual residents living in the care home. Some older people like to take part because it is a social event; others prefer more specialist events which they have a keen interest in.

Activities coordinators are important for care homes to be able to achieve the dementia quality standard for social care set by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). Last month’s standard ‘Supporting People with Dementia to Live Well with Dementia’ highlights that care providers for people with dementia need to allow residents to choose to take part in activities during the day, which match their interests and will enable them to maintain and improve their quality of life.

Providing the opportunity for residents to take part in activities is not only an essential part of current Government policy, it is an essential need for the person being cared for, irrespective of age, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or religious needs.

NAPA has found that care givers who enable residents to continue to participate in activities will help to reduce problems such as depression, dependency and people at risk of falls.

Care home residents are three times more likely to have a major fall than community-living older people. Forty per cent of care home admissions follow a previous fall, and with activities increasing mobility, NAPA advise homes to complete comprehensive risk assessments to prevent falls. However they argue that this should not be at the expense of limiting the individual’s level of independence or ability to participate in activities.

Louise Lakey, Alzheimer’s Society policy manager, said: “Eighty per cent of people in care homes have dementia and there continues to be a deep seated pessimism about the quality of life for a person with the condition living in a care home can have. Yet people shouldn't be settling for less. Truly person-centred care can be achieved, if meaningful activities are in place that reflect the pastimes, hobbies and preferences of residents.

“Supporting people with dementia to be occupied, stimulated and engaged is the best way to maintain their quality of life and can also have many benefits such as improving mood and reducing agitation.”

Ms Teader of Central and Cecil care group explained how the activities coordinator role is executed throughout their care homes.

She said: “Although we are currently having on-going discussions about the move to creating a paid role in the future, at present we don’t have any paid activity coordinators.

“Instead we have one staff member from each care home who volunteers to take on the role of activities coordinator alongside their daily roles as it is something that they have a keen interest in.

“We give these volunteers training and guidance on ways to engage residents with their activities, and we have regular meetings which activity coordinators are invited to from across all Central & Cecil’s homes and schemes to share good practice and discuss their experience and challenges of the role.

“Aside from these designated activity volunteers, there is an expectation at Central & Cecil for all staff members to take an active interest in providing activities for residents, as it is part of the role of providing care.

“While we understand that the main challenge facing carers is making time to plan and organise events when they have an already busy schedule, we also think that their specialist knowledge and training in caring for older people can be useful when planning appropriate events. “We are introducing smaller reading and poetry groups to appeal to residents who are interested in this type of activity.

“The gardening project at Central & Cecil’s care home, Cecil Court in Kew engaged with both keen gardeners and people interested in art, and was a great success. As a result, care staff have started running their own gardening sessions which have proved very popular and the group are planning to hold a summer exhibition of garden themed art-work in the home.”

The National Institute of Adult Continuing Education describe the benefits of ‘informal learning’ in care home settings, saying that getting a resident out of their rooms and joining in with activities can give them greater levels of confidence, improve their memory and dexterity, with further benefits including an improved appetite.

Informal learning encapsulates the possibilities for older people, to take part in activities which improves the lives and well-being of those who participate, even though not leading to formal qualifications.

Activity coordinators need to have a good knowledge of illnesses that are affecting their residents, as well as being sensitive to the individual needs of older people, to give service users the best quality of life possible.

Activities coordinators are becoming more apparent in care homes, and it is an essential role that will be needed in care more as the population grows older, to provide stimulation and a quality of life for residents.