Handbook of Group Activities for Impaired Older Adults

Here is a one-of-a-kind resource for professionals who prepare and lead group activities for impaired older adults. Filling a crucial gap in the field of clinical gerontology, this invaluable guide provides more than 70 stimulating and therapeutic group activities designed specifically for use with moderately to severely impaired older adults. Even though group activities designed for children, adolescents, and young adults are inadequate and inappropriate for use with older adults who have significant cognitive, emotional, and physical limitations or impairments, very little has been published--until now--on activities designed to meet the special needs of this population.

Comprehensive and well-organizedThis comprehensive and well-organized resource does even more than provide over 70 activities at your fingertips. It also includes a recommended schedule of activities for a typical day, helpful suggestions for planning and leading group activities, and valuable tips for creating your own group activities that are effective, therapeutic, and entertaining. Each entry includes information on the activity’s therapeutic value, the optimal group size, the time required, the materials needed, guidelines for adaptation, and blank space for your notes. Also for your convenience, symbols are used to indicate the therapeutic objective and the ease with which the activity can be implemented.

Provides the foundation for a daily activities programHandbook of Group Activities for Impaired Older Adults provides the foundation for a therapeutic and enjoyable daily activities program that facilitates emotional expression, enhances problem solving skills and sensory stimulation, and encourages social interaction. Social workers, nurses, psychologists, psychiatrists, recreational therapists, group therapists, and related paraprofessionals who work in nursing or convalescent hospitals, adult day care or day treatment facilities, and retirement homes will not want to be without this practical guidebook.