Lady-Links: Timely Training

Lady-Links make visits to ladies in our retirement community who are in various stages of cognitive decline.  We engage them in activities they enjoy.  Each dear friend we visit has unique experiences and interests.  Some enjoy games, some enjoy crafts, some enjoy music, and the list goes on and on.  Currently we have nine dear friends we visit,  and the activities we enjoy with each one are specific to her needs and abilities.  That requires training on our part, including meeting occasionally to practice the activities without our dear friends present so that we can discuss how to make the most of each visit.

For games such as Rummikub or Scrabble or Uno, we want the experience to be pleasurable.  We follow the rules of the game but often make slight modifications such as not setting a time limit on someone when it is their turn to make a play.

We discuss how to offer help when needed, but not too quickly as to be offensive nor too late so that she becomes frustrated and can’t figure out what to do.

With our crafts, we discuss adjusting the complexity of the project by determining which part is best done by our dear friend with our help during the visit or done ahead of time by our craft manager.

We preview the crafts and determine topics of conversation that might be inspired when working on them.  For example, crafts involving the sun might encourage conversation about summer vacations when we were children….or even games we played outdoors in the summer.  We’ve found that our dear friends can relate best to memories we share from childhood or young adulthood.

Holidays, such as St. Patrick’s Day, always are great discussion starters.  Seasons of the year are another.  We try to select crafts that are easy to complete, colorful and pleasing.  Thinking of positive, encouraging conversation ahead of time in our planning sessions helps facilitate discussion at the visits.

Training always serves several valuable purposes.  We want to have the knowledge and skills that will make our visits successful.  Keeping updated on how to communicate with those in cognitive decline, understanding how to encourage them through our visits, and discovering ways to engage them in activities that are beneficial are topics we address in our training sessions.  Training is an important part of the Lady-Links experience and something that is crucial to the continued success of our relationships with our dear friends.