At times during the past week I have wondered what to do with elder clients. I had a plan and all of the supplies and was ready to go. Yes, I was nervous. But, I knew that my client would enjoy this activity and I was kind of excited to get going. However, as soon as I tried to find my clients file I found out that she is being discharged from therapy. Stinks, but I moved on to my next client in very little time and started from scratch on what to do with my new client with the supplies I had brought with. With some help from my supervisor I was able to get the client involved and change all of the supplies I brought into an totally different activity that not only lasted this past session, but we will be able to finish next session. And a major bonus is that the client is really looking forward to figuring out how to make a word find. I'm not sure if she realizes what it will be at this point in time, but she is excited.
It really makes a difference if a client is excited about doing an activity. It makes it that much more therapeutic. She really wants to do this for a different reason than what I am doing the activity. She is doing it for fun. I am helping her create this word find to increase her Upper body strength and increase the length of time she is able to do a task. I know through school that making tasks therapeutic has a lot to do with really making the activity something that the person enjoys. Otherwise, they are not going to want to do the activity, or be less than enthusiastic about the activity. Then I found this little diagram and it really hit home.
So, the moral of the story...Do something you like to do or it is not worth doing. And for the therapists out there, make the activities client-centered, so they get the most out of their treatment.
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