|
25
Years of Creating Heart Felt Memories: 1982-2007
National
Activity Professionals Week
January
21 to 26th, 2007
As we pack up the trees
and put away the holiday videos - let's not forget there is
one more celebration.
The good news is - this one is for us: the activity professional.
January 21 through 26th is National Activity Professionals Week.
National recognition days serve many purposes - to educate,
to acknowledge, to draw attention to something and to celebrate.
National Activity Professionals Week can serve all these purposes,
depending on how your department approaches the week. Educating
staff, families and the community about the values and benefits
of therapeutic activities is a daily responsibility for every
activity department. As a profession, we are still "paying our
dues" because we are a rather new profession. People need to
understand there is a "method to our madness" and that all our
programs and approaches have a purpose. NAPW is a perfect time
to conduct in-services, offer to speak at family meetings or
go out into the community and conduct informative talks about
the benefits of activity involvement. Creating informative posters
or tri-boards can be displayed during this week as a means to
communicate the benefits of each activity offered in the long
term care community.
While education is essential, acknowledging the work and the
success of the profession is also an important goal for the
week. Many an activity professional has heard the phrase "I
wish I could be paid to have fun all day". Yes, most of us do
enjoy our work and it is to our credit, we make it all look
so easy. But, we all know the hours of preparation and planning
that go into our daily, weekly and monthly programs. Acknowledging
the activity staff during this week provides an opportunity
to thank the department and individual staff for their hard
work and efforts throughout the year. Our National Activity
Association (NAAP) offers recognition gifts with this year's
logo and there are a number of other "activity" stores which
offer activity clothing and gifts which could be presented during
this week as a form of recognition.
National recognition days can also be used to draw attention
to the profession or cause. As mentioned early, the therapeutic
activity profession is a new profession, having been a paid
profession in long term care since the late 1960's. The first
individuals who worked in the activity department were nice
enough, but many were initially untrained and unskilled. Today's
activity professional must have specific training and certain
skills. We have national, state and local professional organizations
which represent us. We have standards of practice, ethics and
regulations which define the scope and parameter of our work.
As a new profession, we are still gaining respect and earning
our place at the "big table". National Activity Professionals'
Week would be an opportunity to convey that this is an established
profession which has professionals who do professional work.
Creating a bulletin board, a tri-fold board or a simple brochure
which outlines the history of therapeutic activities and our
growth as a profession would communicate this well. Information
which could be utilized for the board is available to members
of NAAP.
Finally, let's do what we are known best for - have a celebration.
Celebrate with your fellow activity professionals, celebrate
with facility staff and of course, celebrate with the residents.
Getting the department together for a celebratory meal, formally
or informally should be a part of the week for all activity
departments. Whether you are able to all go out to a local restaurant
or order in pizza, a shared meal creates a sense of community.
Celebrate with your facility staff. Bring donuts or Danish to
the department head meeting during the week. Give out the informative
brochure that you created for your department and involve the
department heads in our celebration. Schedule an "activities"
open house, with refreshments, balloons and games. Send out
invitations to all departmental staff and invite them to join
the celebration. While they are visiting your department and
sharing in those refreshments, there is opportunity for them
to review the informative posters or tri-fold boards you have
created and displayed. Lastly, schedule a party with your residents
and their families. Give out "activity awards" to the residents
for highest attendance, earliest arriver, or best bingo player.
Give out "staff awards" for the best craft leader, best bingo
caller and the like. Like the theme for this year says, make
the week full of "heartfelt memories".
|
