a. Referrals, “Your Roommate Won’t Be There!”
1. Stating whether a certain resident will be at the activity or whether a certain resident will not be at the activity can be a powerful motivator. For example, state to the resident, "Your roommate will be there,” or “Your roommate will not be there."
2. (Culture Change, “Person Appropriate”) Secondly, you might refer to a resident's past interest, for example, “Growing Plants Indoors.” Do you have any residents who used to garden? I was a miserable failure at getting residents out of the facility. The worst program I ever had was a Watermelon Feed, where I had dietary purchase watermelons and all were on ice in a children’s swimming pool. I tried to get the residents out on to the patio on a hot summer day where there was no shade. I couldn’t figure out why no one wanted to go out. So everybody sat inside while I carried the watermelons in and had dietary cut them up.

The point is, I had real problems getting residents out of the facility. You may have a garden, and that may work out for you. If you are like I was and it doesn’t, you might decide to have an Indoor Gardening Club. For the Indoor Gardening Club everybody gets a potted plant and they bring it to the Plant Discussion Group. You have one or two residents a week bring their potted plant to the Plant Discussion Group. These plants are maybe donated by a nursery. During the Plant Discussion Group you might discuss humidity, types of containers the plants are in and so on. In combining this with the “Referrals” motivational technique, you can refer a past interest or refer the name of someone that will be attending the activity that will act as a motivator to that resident. You might also use an Indoor Plant Club as a motivator for a resident who is active in the garden during the summer months, but becomes withdrawn during the winter.

Below write the names of residents that might be motivated by referring that another resident either will or will not be attending; or perhaps referring to a past interest, like gardening, that they have had. Then, duplicate this table in Word Excel or a notebook and list additional residents.

Residents who may become motivated by "Referrals" regarding others Attending or Past Interests

Culture Change CNA Inservice: Brainstorm about residents who CNAs feel could be motivated by “Referring” to another or a past interest.

b. Clothing: Appearance Can Motivate
I have a magazine article called "Body Shopping." Let me tell you what "Body Shopping" is about. The article shows all the different kinds of surgeries that you can have to make yourself more attractive. Would you agree or disagree that our society is “appearance-oriented?” Don’t you think our residents are aware of that? Think about your residents that are severely impaired and have physical problems. I want everybody to look down at the front of their shirt or their blouse right now, and I want you to envision a big ketchup stain…See it? Now, I want you to imagine that you’re at home and have on the same blouse and shirt and there’s that big ketchup stain. Now I want you to put yourself back in a beautiful fancy restaurant, or a job interview , and you’ve got that big stain on your clothing. It’s not a dot folks, it’s a big spot. Now is there a difference in the way you feel between having the stain at home, and having the stain in public? Sure there is!

Here's my point. If you have a resident in your facility that drools, and you say, “Okay Harry or Helen, let’s go down the hall to the dining room for the Reminiscence Group. Come on, let’s go. Don’t you want to come out for the Group?” And he or she says, “No!” Do you have a little bit better insight into why the drooling resident doesn’t want to come out now?

There was a farmer I once interviewed during a consultation, and his name was Gil. He had lost a lot of weight. Gil's bib overalls were easily, I’d say, five to six sizes too big. This resident had weighed a couple hundred pounds and probably had lost almost hundred pounds. Activities couldn’t get Gil out of his room. Gil was also a resident who drooled, so he had a towel on his front. Now we can’t change the drooling; he’s going to do that. That can’t be stopped, but what could be changed? His clothes could be changed. Think about your unmotivated residents' appearance in your facility. Think about getting together with the families and having them select some clothes of the correct size. How would you feel with a big stain on your blouse or shirt, and someone says, “Okay, come on. Let’s go out to the hotel or another place.” You would probably say, “Well, no I don’t think I will today.”

So we can change Gil’s clothing but we can’t change his drooling. How might you approach your Gil, if you have a resident that you feel is unmotivated because of some kind of an appearance issue? There is a book that came out a many years ago called “The Games People Play.” The ideas in the book were about introducing a game, in other words, introducing a topic for discussion. If you talk about something in the employees’ lounge, everybody’s playing the game, for example, “the administrator’s a wonderful guy,” but if you come into the employee's lounge and say he or she’s terrible, people are going to say or think “Why are you saying that?” Or, if everybody’s saying the administrator’s terrible, and you say, “Gosh, he or she is great,” you aren't playing the game, so to speak.

So, with your resident that has appearance-related issues, something you might do is to think about an aspect of their appearance that is less than positive. You mightslip into the conversation something about your appearance that you are uncomfortable with. You might say to your Gil, “You know, gosh, I just got this permanent, and my hair looks really frizzy.” After making a comment about your appearance don’t say anything else. Just be quiet. Do you see you’ve introduced a topic and you know what the topic is? Appearances, right? The name of the game is "It's okay to be not okay" about your appearance, but you don’t say, “Gosh, I really feel bad about this.” You talk and give some support to the resident to express his or her negative feelings or perhaps embarrassment about him- or herself. Think about how hard it would be for an eighty-year-old man, like Gil, to say, “I’m embarrassed over the fact that I drool, and my overalls are too large.” Eighty-year-old men and women just sometimes cannot give themselves permission to express feelings.
In summary
1. Evaluate if the resident could be thinking, "I am embarrassed about the way I look."
2. You might look for non-verbal clues regarding the resident's appearance issues. Do you recall from a previous Section the resident who had had his leg amputated, and a lap robe was put over his leg?
3. Share something less than positive about your own appearance, that you are comfortable sharing.
4. Then stop, and leave space for the resident to comment, since you have introduced the topic or “game” so to speak of “it’s okay to talk about less than okay areas of my appearance.”
5. Consider what it might take to get the family to buy new clothes that fit the resident.

Below write the names of residents that might be motivated by new clothing or discussion of their appearance issues. Social Services may be able to provide assistance in these areas.. Then, duplicate this table in Word, Excel, or a notebook and list additional residents.

Culture Change CNA Inservice: Brainstorm about residents whom CNAs feel they could motivate by supportiveness of “Appearance.”

Goal: To participate in a Plant Discussion Group…
Approach: To motivate resident by saying, “Your roommate won’t be there”…
Approach: To motivate resident by discussing the resident’s past interest in gardening…
Approach: To motivate resident with new clothing…

ActivityProfessional.Com Login