The Importance of Leisure Activities on the Old Residents of the Nursing Home

As the activities director of this nursing home, the importance of having a quality of life of our residents is one of, if not the most, important issues we must address. In old age, it is important for our residents to have the best quality care that we can provide for them. So as the activities director, I plan on implementing activities that involve our residents’ favorite leisure activities as well as more of our religious based activities as well all while making sure that all of our residents are interacting with one another as well as interacting with members of the staff.

In old age, leisure activities slowly replace work. Often times, the same leisure activities that someone enjoyed doing in middle age will stay constant as they age. Activities that could be included are sports, like tennis or golf. Though our residents may not to be as active as long as they once were, we can create a program that still involves them partaking in the sport, just maybe not for as long.

If a tennis program were implemented, it could be for 30 minutes where the residents could practice hitting tennis balls with a racket.

They could also pair up with another resident and practice passing the ball back and fourth with each other, all while under the supervision of staff to ensure that no one would be engaging in the activity where they could strain themselves too much. In a sample golfing program, instead of having our residents walking all over a hilly golf course, which could be strenuous on their joints, we improvise a putt-putt like situation where residents are able to go through a course of 3-7 holes with little obstacles.

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I believe it is almost important to hold information sessions about things that our residents find interesting, so they can continue to receive an education about a variety of subjects that are of interest to our residents, including any religious activities.

Another important aspect to improving our resident’s quality of life is to make sure that we integrate religion and faith into our activities as well as providing religious reading materials into every room for our residents to read on their own time if they choose not to participate in the more group-oriented activities like mass.

It’s important for us to keep religion and faith a part of this institution because research shows a positive relationship between well being and holding religious beliefs. It’s very important to encourage the residents to interact with one another as well as the staff members so that they don’t loose any human interaction.

One of them most meaningful things a person can have in their life is interaction with other humans. It’s in these actions with other people that we find joy and find that life is worth living, especially when we can share it with another person. It’s vital that we keep our residents engaged with one another so that they are able to make and maintain new relationships around them in a time where their own friends and family are dying and becoming less accessible to them.

Through any of our provided activities, our residents should be encouraged to share the experience with the other residents and encourage positive social interactions between them. If our residents can make and maintain positive relationships, then they will be able to find joy in simply interacting with each other, which can give them a reason to get up in the morning.