Implementing a Leisure and Recreation Program for Dementia Patients

This report outlines the planning and implementation of a leisure and recreation program designed for older adults with dementia, with the primary aim of enhancing their quality of life. It begins by identifying the target group as older adults in Australia suffering from dementia and provides a rationale for including this population, emphasizing the benefits of recreational activities in combating social isolation and improving mental health. The report emphasizes a multidisciplinary approach, highlighting the importance of consulting with physicians, physiotherapists, family members, and psychologists. It details the selection of recreational activities, including dancing, gardening, and art activities, chosen based on participants' former lifestyles and interests. The program's objectives are clearly defined, focusing on community participation, socialization, skill development, and overall health improvement. The report includes a comprehensive activity plan, addressing the preparation of a safe working environment and outlining the resources needed. A detailed risk assessment is provided for each activity, along with mitigation strategies. Furthermore, the report covers program promotion, the management of challenging behaviors, and the evaluation of the program's effectiveness. The conclusion stresses the importance of adhering to statutory guidelines and the need to consult with physicians before initiating any exercise program. The report concludes by emphasizing the positive impact of such programs on the patients’ health and mental well-being.

Running head: LEISURE AND RECREATION PROGRAM
LEISURE AND RECREATION PROGRAM
Name of Student:
Name of University:
Author’s Note:

1LEISURE AND RECREATION PROGRAM
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
The target group for leisure and recreational program....................................................................2
Rationale for including dementia patient.....................................................................................2
Multidisciplinary approach..............................................................................................................2
Type of recreational and leisure activities.......................................................................................3
Objective of the program.................................................................................................................3
Preparation of the activity plan........................................................................................................4
Preparation of safe working area.................................................................................................4
Resource needed..........................................................................................................................4
Risk assessment...............................................................................................................................5
Promotion of the program................................................................................................................7
Management of challenging behaviour...........................................................................................8
Evaluation of the effectiveness of the program...............................................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
Bibliography..................................................................................................................................10

2LEISURE AND RECREATION PROGRAM
Introduction
The primary aim of the report is to plan and implement a leisure and recreational program
for the older adult who has dementia to improve their quality of life. The reports give
information related to target groups and rationale, type of activities selected, program plan and
its objective, resource needed, and risk assessment ad way to evaluate the program.
The target group for leisure and recreational program
The chosen population for the leisure and recreational program are older adult of
Australia who is suffering from dementia.
Rationale for including dementia patient
Dementia patients are the one who suffers from memory loss and as the result of it most
of them withdraw themselves from daily activities and become socially isolated1. Hence, there is
a need to include dementia patient in a recreational activity so that they could be able to live a
healthy and good quality of life. It will improve the mood, their mental health and memory.
Multidisciplinary approach
To get started with the program, there is the need to consult with following
professional/people:
 Physician- Consultation with doctor is essential to get assured that there is no risk to
dementia patients with the chosen exercise2.
1 Jones, Danielle et al., "Conversational Assessment In Memory Clinic Encounters: Interactional Profiling For
Differentiating Dementia From Functional Memory Disorders" (2015) 20(5) Aging & Mental Health
2 Mariani, Elena et al., "Shared Decision-Making In Dementia Care Planning: Barriers And Facilitators In Two
European Countries" (2016) 21(1) Aging & Mental Health

3LEISURE AND RECREATION PROGRAM
 Physiotherapist- Will suggest which type of activities will be beneficial and harmful.
 Family members- There is need to get consent from the family member to include their
belonging in the programme.
 Psychologist- To gain information about the impact of activities on their mental health.
Type of recreational and leisure activities
The activity chosen is based on their former lifestyle, their hobbies, social interest and
medical history. Therefore, for dementia patients, the best-chosen activity will be3:
 Dancing - It helps to work with their mood, and it will encourage them to interact with
another member.
 Gardening- It will help in relieving stress and creates a sense of accomplishment.
 Art activities- It will help dementia patients to express their emotions and idea.
Objective of the program
The objective of the program is as follows:
 To enhance their participation in the community.
 To promote socialization and lower isolation4.
 Help the dementia patient to learn new skill that will improve their health.
 To improve the health status of older adult
 To enhance the quality of life of dementia patients.
3 Hirshfeld et al., "Activity-in-a-box for engaging persons with dementia in groups: implications for therapeutic
recreation practice." 15, no. 3 (2016): 8-18. American Journal of Recreation Therapy
4 Noel et al, "Quality dementia care: Integrating caregivers into a chronic disease management model." 36, no. 2
(2017): 195-212. Journal of Applied Gerontology

4LEISURE AND RECREATION PROGRAM
Preparation of the activity plan
To get started with the programme, it is important to evaluate the interest and
competency of dementia patients. The three activity will be executed once per day.
Activity Hours Day
Dancing 2 hours Monday and Wednesday
Gardening 3 hours Tuesday and Thursday
Art activity 5 hours Friday and Saturday
Preparation of safe working area
Dementia people have visual and coordination problem hence, surface should be
uncluttered, and environment should be less noisy and good lighted5. Use of plastic container
should be encouraged to avoid injury. Hence, venue of the program will be in recreational centre
having gardening, dancing and art facilities.
Resource needed
To implement the leisure and recreational activity following resource will be required:
Equipment Gardening tools like a trowel, spade and
sprinkle.
Music theatre and drawing tools like colours,
crayon, canvas and brushes.
Staffs/ Support service Volunteer to access the dementia people in
5 Thoma-Lürken et al, "Facilitating aging in place: A qualitative study of practical problems preventing people with
dementia from living at home." 39, no. 1 (2018): 29-38 Geriatric nursing

5LEISURE AND RECREATION PROGRAM
their activity6.
Money Financial help will be needed to purchase the
equipment, hire peoples, in advertisement and
to book the venue centre.
Expertise Physiotherapist, gardener, dancer, artist and
health practitioner7.
Risk assessment
Activity Level of
risk
Type of risk Precaution/ control
measures
Mitigation
measures
6 Yang et al, "Leisure activities, apolipoprotein E e4 status, and the risk of dementia." 114, no. 12 (2015): 1216-1224
Journal of the Formosan Medical Association
7 Mitchell, Kathryn, and Marieke Van Puymbroeck. "Recreational Therapy for Dementia-Related Symptoms in a
Long-Term Care Setting: A Case Study." 53, no. 2 (2019): 165-174 Therapeutic Recreation Journal

6LEISURE AND RECREATION PROGRAM
Dance Moderate  Falling
 Leg injury
 Breathing
problem
 Good quality
of shoes will
be provided to
the peoples.
 The floor will
not be
slippery.
 Light dance
such as square
dancing will
be
encouraged8.
 First aid
will be
provided in
any injury.
 Physician
will be
available in
case of an
emergency.
Gardening Low  Accident or
self-injury
 Will not use
any sharp
tools.
 Activities will
not be done in
hot summer
days9.
 First aid
will be
provided in
any injury.
 The
physician
will be
available in
case of an
8 Guzmán et al, "Psychomotor Dance Therapy Intervention (DANCIN) for people with dementia in care homes: a
multiple-baseline single-case study." 28, no. 10 (2016): 1695-1715 International psychogeriatrics
9 Noone, Sarah, and Nicholas Jenkins. "Digging for Dementia: Exploring the experience of community gardening
from the perspectives of people with dementia." 22, no. 7 (2018): 881-888 Aging & mental health

7LEISURE AND RECREATION PROGRAM
emergency.
Art
activity
Low  Anxiety
 Self-injury
 Will use
environmental
friendly
paints
 Will avoid
using
complicated
tools10.
 Will use
simple art
such as finger
painting
 Encourage to
do sculpting.
 First aid
will be
provided in
any injury.
 The
physician
will be
available in
case of
emergency.
Promotion of the program
The promotion of the care program will be executed in following ways:
 Advertisement through social media11.
 Circulating hand-out and pamphlet explaining the benefit of program.
10. Gross, Susan M., Deana Danilova, Michael A. Vandehey, and George M. Diekhoff. "Creativity and dementia:
Does artistic activity affect well-being beyond the art class?." 14, no. 1 (2015): 27-46 Dementia
11 Mohney, Stephen, Daniel J. Lee, and John C. Elfar. "The effect of orthopedic advertising and self-promotion on a
naive population." 45, no. 4 (2016): E227 American journal of orthopedics (Belle Mead, NJ)

8LEISURE AND RECREATION PROGRAM
 Give presentation of the programme in health unit to create awareness.
 Approach dementia patients in health unit and have one to one conversation.
 Give advertisement in newspaper regarding the program.
Management of challenging behaviour
In the course of activity, there is a chance of encountering challenging behaviour.
However, events selected will help in dealing with that behaviour. They should not be
discouraged when they fail in performing any activities12. There is a need to motivate them and
never make them feel like a failure. By giving appreciation to their effort will help in managing
their behaviour.
Evaluation of the effectiveness of the program
To evaluate the effectiveness of the program, there is the need to observe the working of
daily plan activity. Person daily response will be recorded, and their success rate will be
evaluated by giving daily score13. If any distraction, boring or irritation behaviour is noted, a new
activity will be planned or break will be given to such events. If the score is increasing, then it
reflects that the program plan is working well for dementia people.
Conclusion
Lastly, from the above discussion, it can be said to implement recreational and leisure
program for dementia patients, there is need to ensure that all the staffs and facilitators have
understood the statutory guidelines and legislative requirements. To ensure it questionnaire
12 Feast et al, "Behavioural and psychological symptoms in dementia and the challenges for family carers: systematic
review." 208, no. 5 (2016): 429-434 The British Journal of Psychiatry
13 Sun et al, "Recovery Intervention to Promote Social Connectedness through Social Recreational Programs for
Persons with Dementia: A Critical Analysis." In Advances in Dementia Research. IntechOpen, 2019.

9LEISURE AND RECREATION PROGRAM
survey will be conducted to test their understanding. Such a program will help in maintaining
good health and mental status of the patients. However, for the success of the program, there is
great need to talk to the person's physician before initiating any exercise program.

10LEISURE AND RECREATION PROGRAM
Bibliography
Feast et al, "Behavioural and psychological symptoms in dementia and the challenges for family
carers: systematic review." 208, no. 5 (2016): 429-434 The British Journal of Psychiatry.
Gross, Susan M., Deana Danilova, Michael A. Vandehey, and George M. Diekhoff. "Creativity
and dementia: Does artistic activity affect well-being beyond the art class?." 14, no. 1 (2015):
27-46 Dementia
Guzmán et al, "Psychomotor Dance Therapy Intervention (DANCIN) for people with dementia
in care homes: a multiple-baseline single-case study." 28, no. 10 (2016): 1695-1715
International psychogeriatrics
Hirshfeld et al, "Activity-in-a-box for engaging persons with dementia in groups: implications
for therapeutic recreation practice." 15, no. 3 (2016): 8-18. American Journal of Recreation
Therapy
Jones, Danielle et al, "Conversational Assessment in Memory Clinic Encounters: Interactional
Profiling for Differentiating Dementia from Functional Memory Disorders" (2015) 20(5) Aging
& Mental Health
Mariani, Elena et al, "Shared Decision-Making in Dementia Care Planning: Barriers and
Facilitators in Two European Countries" (2016) 21(1) Aging & Mental Health
Mitchell, Kathryn, and Marieke Van Puymbroeck. "Recreational Therapy for Dementia-Related
Symptoms in a Long-Term Care Setting: A Case Study." 53, no. 2 (2019): 165-174 Therapeutic
Recreation Journal

11LEISURE AND RECREATION PROGRAM
Mohney, Stephen, Daniel J. Lee, and John C. Elfar. "The effect of orthopedic advertising and
self-promotion on a naive population." 45, no. 4 (2016): E227 American journal of orthopedics
(Belle Mead, NJ)
Noel et al, "Quality dementia care: Integrating caregivers into a chronic disease management
model." 36, no. 2 (2017): 195-212. Journal of Applied Gerontology
Noone, Sarah, and Nicholas Jenkins. "Digging for Dementia: Exploring the experience of
community gardening from the perspectives of people with dementia." 22, no. 7 (2018): 881-888
Aging & mental health
Sun et al, "Recovery Intervention to Promote Social Connectedness through Social Recreational
Programs for Persons with Dementia: A Critical Analysis." In Advances in Dementia Research.
IntechOpen, 2019.
Thoma-Lürken et al, "Facilitating aging in place: A qualitative study of practical problems
preventing people with dementia from living at home." 39, no. 1 (2018): 29-38 Geriatric nursing
Yang et al, "Leisure activities, apolipoprotein E e4 status, and the risk of dementia." 114, no. 12
(2015): 1216-1224 Journal of the Formosan Medical Association