Here is a one-of-a-kind resource for professionals who prepare and lead group activities for impaired older adults. Filling a crucial gap in the field of clinical gerontology, this invaluable guide provides more than 70 stimulating and therapeutic group activities designed specifically for use with moderately to severely impaired older adults. Even though group activities designed for children, adolescents, and young adults are inadequate and inappropriate for use with older adults who have significant cognitive, emotional, and physical limitations or impairments, very little has been published--until now--on activities designed to meet the special needs of this population.Comprehensive and well-organized This comprehensive and well-organized resource does even more than provide over 70 activities at your fingertips. It also includes a recommended schedule of activities for a typical day, helpful suggestions for planning and leading group activities, and valuable tips for creating your own group activities that are effective, therapeutic, and entertaining. Each entry includes information on the activity’s therapeutic value, the optimal group size, the time required, the materials needed, guidelines for adaptation, and blank space for your notes. Also for your convenience, symbols are used to indicate the therapeutic objective and the ease with which the activity can be implemented. Provides the foundation for a daily activities program Handbook of Group Activities for Impaired Older Adults provides the foundation for a therapeutic and enjoyable daily activities program that facilitates emotional expression, enhances problem solving skills and sensory stimulation, and encourages social interaction. Social workers, nurses, psychologists, psychiatrists, recreational therapists, group therapists, and related paraprofessionals who work in nursing or convalescent hospitals, adult day care or day treatment facilities, and retirement homes will not want to be without this practical guidebook.
Elsbeth Martindale is a psychologist in private practice in Portland, OR. She is blessed with a creative spirit and has used this creativity to develop a number of kinesthetic and visual tools for use in therapy. Dr. Martindale sees herself as a teacher and strength builder. She believes that empowering people to be wise means giving them access to effective life-skills and tools. She offer these tools and sharpens them, as needed, in her therapy work. Now one of her best tools, Things to Know Before You Say "Go", is available to the general public.
The Things to Know Before You Say "Go" deck of cards and book came directly out of Dr. Martindale's work with clients in psychotherapy. She found that many people were not asking the necessary questions as they approached their romantic relationships. Without all the necessary information individuals were unable to determine the potential viability of the partnership. She found that cards offered playful, powerful, and small bites of wisdom that allowed her clients to really examine their love interests in an engaging manner. The cards became an effective tool in therapy. She expanded the questions to encompass all the basic concerns of relationship stability and wrote an accompanying book to explain the value of asking each question. These cards are now available as a self-exploration tool outside of therapy but it's like having a therapist's wisdom in a box. The card questions have also been developed into and iPhone app called, The Questions.
The Handbook of Group Activities for Older Impaired Adults was written during Dr. Martindale's internship in a geriatric day treatment center. In this setting she was faced with the challenge of working with a group of impaired older adults without much guidance or structure. There was no workbook, activity guide, or practical list of ideas for how to keep such a diverse group of adults engaged and challenged. It was out of this frustration, for how to provide a meaningful experience for both the clients and staff, that she used her creativity to catalog effective activities. Using ideas from the games she played in church youth groups, and adapting them to meet the needs of this population, she compiled a collection of activities that were stimulating and engaging, and this activity book is the result.
