Activity Professionals - Section 7

The Activity Director

In each of the long-term care facilities that we work with, there is someone who is responsible for providing a stimulating and challenging activity-based environment for the residents' enjoyment and benefit. The level and type of activity is tailored to the abilities of each person living in the facility. The one who is given this job in most care facilities is called the "activity director" or, sometimes, the "recreation therapist." This person is as important to many of the residents as their medical and nutritional helpers. "Christian ministry" is within this broader scope of "activities." Therefore, from an organizational point of view, Christian volunteering comes under the responsibility of the activity director.

The Volunteer and the Activity Director

When you are in the facility as a volunteer, you are there because the staff, and specifically the activity director, considers your contribution to the well-being of the residents to be necessary and positive. In a sense, you are a guest in the facility. We urge all Christian volunteers to keep this very important fact in mind. The activity director of any given care facility may not see a real need for the specific activity that you would like most to do. Be flexible and seek to fit into the actual needs for volunteering as opposed to your own preconceptions. Also, mold your skills and talents to the facility's population, rather than expecting them to bend around you. Remember, the activity director is there every day, all day, and he or she knows what the residents need and what the regulations and policies of the facility are. Therefore, it is important to work with the activity director and to enhance and support their program. You can be assured that the activity director will be as flexible as he/she can be.

Activity directors need Christians to do more than "church services." Consider all the helpful and interesting things you can do as a volunteer. (Please refer to the sections of this handbook labeled "Programs" and "Games and Activities.") Let the activity director know you would like to help accomplish important tasks for the residents' welfare. Get the activity director's input as to the effectiveness of your service and how you can improve. Be a servant for Christ.

Activity Professionals' Associations

Local

Throughout the United States, there are associations of professional activity directors. In Hampton Roads, the local association is called Hampton Roads Activity Professionals' Association, or "HRAPA." They define themselves as professionals who plan and coordinate activity programs that meet the intellectual, psychological, spiritual, and physical needs of the geriatric population and persons with special needs in geriatric settings. HRAPA provides activity professionals with support through educational seminars and networking, enabling members to enhance the quality of life for the residents in their facilities. Membership in HRAPA is open to individuals employed or interested in the provision of activity programming in long-term health care facilities, retirement homes, adult day care programs and senior centers in Southeastern Virginia. Meetings and training seminars are held monthly on the second Thursday at 1:00 P.M. at various facilities in the greater Hampton Roads area. To find out more about HRAPA, call Christian Concourse at (757) 714-3133 for their contact information or visit their website at http://www.hrapa.org/Home_Page.php .

State

The state-wide association of activity professionals in Virginia is called VAAP - Virginia Association of Activity Professionals. This state organization is in effect, a linking of all the local associations, though membership in VAAP is open to all individuals employed or interested in the provision of activity programming in long term health care facilities, retirement housing, adult day care programs and senior centers.

National

Nationally, there is the National Association of Activity Professionals. NAAP is the only national organization that exclusively represents Activity Professionals working in primarily geriatric settings. This association provides opportunities for professional development and personal growth.

From the Desk of the Administrator

by Lori

Used by the author's permission.

The poem below was written by a nursing home administrator to all her staff who labor so selflessly and diligently for the welfare of the residents. The next time you go to volunteer in a nursing home, please remember the sacrifice that the activities personnel and all the staff members there make every day.

"How can you stand all the noise?", they say.
"How can you work here day after day?"
"They scream and they holler, they fuss and they spit."
"When you give them a bath they cuss and they hit!"

We can explain and explain but they can't understand
The joy that we know when we touch feeble hands,
The love that we feel when we hear her say,
"Polly Esther, please help me, I don't know the way."

It's not she who is lost, it's us in the dark,
    If we fail to see her eyes still have a spark.
There's life within all for whom "home" is this place.
    Let's make it the best; always pray for God's grace
That He'll help us continue to serve those in need,
    That each day we'll seek to do a kind deed.
Pray He'll send patience from Heaven above
    For us to treat them in kindness and touch them with love.

You all are the best, a true chosen few.
I pray God will bless you for all that you do.
For you do it so kindly, so gently, so well,
The angels in heaven your stories will tell.

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