Your ALF is required to provide your residents with daily structured activities. Your ALF is also required to post a monthly activity schedule in a visible area, where the residents frequent.
Creating Your Facility Activity Calendar
Firstl
y, brainstorm and write down activities that you would like to include in your ALF’s activity program. Depending on your ALF’s population, this can be a difficult task. You might have a population that does not participate in activities, in which case you will need to get creative.
Try and think outside the box – your residents will participate in things besides “bingo”! It’s best to keep trying new things – offering a variety of activities, that the residents may come to enjoy.
There are many helpful websites to help you with your brainstorming. Try Googling “elderly activities” and you will discover hundreds of ideas to test out.
Secondly, figure out what tool you will use to create your calendar. Here are a few suggestions:
Google Docs (free) You can find calendar templates and fill in your information. Once it’s complete it can be printed out. I have found it helpful because it’s cloud-based, meaning you can work on it anywhere, anytime. Here is a (free) template you can use Calendar Template
Win Calander (free) Select a calendar size and download it. Once it’s downloaded you can fill in your information. You will need either Word or Adobe to use it.
Activity Connection (paid) If you have the budget, I recommend this site. It has tools for all your activity needs from ideas to a calendar creator tool.
Printing Your Calendar
Once you have cr
eated your calendar, I recommend that you go to a printing center like Kinkos and have it printed in an enlarged size. This will help your residents see it and will also please the AHCA surveyor.
In our busy lives as ALF operators, administrators, and managers, the days and months fly by and we have hundreds of regulations and compliance tasks to worry about. I recommend that using a reminder system for your ALF activities so that they don’t get forgotten. If you are the person in charge of making the calendar, put a reminder in there for a “creating calendar” task. If your job is to make sure your ALF is AHCA compliant, add a reminder to make sure the calendar is up on the wall for the first of every month.