Within Memory Care communities, the typical “cruise ship” style of activity programming can often fall short in meeting all the individual resident needs or abilities. Our Life Skills Stations have been developed to help meet some these needs. Our stations are designed to help our residents find moments of purpose, pleasure, or peace as they interact within these spaces. Many of our stations attempt to provide feelings of purpose, as this is such an important emotion for human beings and yet is often overlooked in traditional activity planning. These purpose-geared stations are built around those tasks and skills that have become ingrained in us. This includes homemaking tasks such as sweeping up, vacuuming, folding clothes, unloading a dishwasher, rocking a baby, or working or tinkering in a workshop. We work to create spaces and fill them with items that are engaging to residents and promote function, independence, and promote a sense of identity and self-worth.
Some Examples of our Life Skills Stations include:
- Kitchenette with towel sorting, dish cleaning and/or organizing, sorting and putting away groceries, and even small “meal” preparation tasks when resident appropriate
- Workshop with resident safe and appropriate tools and handy projects like assembling drainage pipe systems, putting together and/or painting bird houses, sorting socket sets or screws
- Quilting / Sewing with various fabric squares of different shapes and color for sorting, flattening, or sewing with supervision when resident appropriate
- Nursery area(s) with crib, changing table, chairs, nursery decorations, babies and stuffed animals
- Library / Office with bookshelves and books for resident use, files for sorting and organizing, resident safe office supplies, calendar, etc.
