Practicum Summary

Practicum Summary

My senior practicum is being fulfilled at Chartwell Eau Claire in downtown Calgary. It is a care residence  that offers supportive living and enhanced assisted living care to over 122 residents of all abilities. The second flood is a secured dementia floor—with a code to both enter and leave—and houses 25 residents who have moderate to severe dementia. Residents on the rest of the floors are able to use the many facilities that are found on the main floor including a theatre room, wellness room, lounge areas and a main dining room. The 2^nd, 3^rd and 8^th floors have own lounge and dining areas as well.

I worked as a part of the recreational therapy team there, with the head Recreational Therapist and Recreational Therapist aide as my supervisors. Though I was not new to the world of Recreational Therapy (as my summer job had already introduced me to it), I was able to gain a deeper knowledge and understanding behind the planning and implementing of the programs they do. You cannot just pull an activity out of nowhere or because you assume it will go over well. An activity must use functional intervention, education and recreation participation in order help teach skills and to develop knowledge and behaviours. It must also allow for the residents to look past their physical, cognitive, emotional and/or social limitations (that they or society believes that they have) in order to enjoy their leisure time optimally, be independent and participate in society. If you plan an activity that does not meet at least one of these requirements, then it is not an appropriate activity for Recreational Therapy.  I am very happy that I was able to learn this and appreciate the profession much more.

My main project this semester was developing a fresh and exciting program for the Recreation department to use once I have left in April. To do so, I first had to complete a best practice literature review and a logic model. Since I have never done either of these things, they were also two of my skill development goals for this semester. However, I also wanted to learn about what was popular or most enjoyable for the residents, as I ultimately will be implementing my program for them. Firstly, I searched for the best practices according to the literature, and came across a journal article by Hickman, Newton, Halcomb, Chang and Davidson (2007). They stated that exercise programs, cognitive functioning programs (i.e. trivia, etc.), art therapy, music therapy and aromatherapy were the best practices at this current time (Hickman et al, 2007). From my own experience at Chartwell, the most popular activities were the exercise programs, trivia and “Happy Hour”. Looking deeper in the best practices, I wanted to see how each them measured up to development of the various skills (physical, mental, emotional and social) that were the goals of recreational therapy, but also how they would affect physical and mental health in the clients. What I found was that exercise programs were the most successful, meeting all requirements for the target skills and also helping to improve physical and mental health ( Lavie, Milani, O'Keefe, & Lavie, 2011; Cho, An & Yoo, 2014). Next, cognitive stimulation programs were almost as successful, meeting nearly all domains except for the ones related to physical skills/health (Aguirre, Woods, Spector, & Orrel, 2013). Next, art and music therapy programs were at the same success rate, as they met most skills but both had very minimal reports on the physical benefits of these types of programs (Chu, Yang, Lin, Ou, Lee, O'Brien, & Chou, 2013; Im & Lee, 2014). Lastly, aromatherapy was the least successful in meeting the domains. It is a relatively new practice and though popular, it only meets mental health and emotional skills domains (Nguyen & Paton, 2008). My full paper is provided in the next section.

From my research, I concluded that I wanted to implement an exercise program, because it was so successful and the residents really enjoyed doing them at Chartwell. However, there are already three exercise programs (Gentle exercise, Fun & Fitness and Rhythm & Moves) in place and adding just another basic exercise program might either be too much of a good thing or really boring for them. So, I thought since my research had uncovered that cognitive stimulation is also very successful—but lacking in the physical benefits—and that the residents love trivia games, I would combine the two to make a holistic and fun program. I called it Head-to-Toe for two reasons: one, I am working the residents out Head (mental/trivia portion) to toe (whole body workout) and two, all the other programs have snappy names, so I wanted mine to fit in. My plan is to implement this when I return in January and to troubleshoot any problems or add any things I may have missed in the planning portion so that by the time I leave, the program will run without a hitch for the staff.

The last part of my project, my logic model (provided below), was probably what caused me the most difficulty. When researching it, some examples came up that were very detailed and extensive which worried me. I was afraid I would not have enough time to fulfill this part of my project. Luckily, I was informed to keep it simple and to the basics, so that is what I completed. Learning to do a logic model is helpful, because I could organize my thoughts and see the actual layout of what I wanted to accomplish with my future program.

Apart from my main project, I was also able to participate and eventually led the programs that Chartwell already has in place. This helped not only boost my confidence, as I am terrified of public speaking, but also helped me to work on some of my goals. Through leading these programs, I was able to work on my leadership skills, team membership skills and communication skills. My communication skills and team member skills were also developed through regular discussions and questions with my supervisors, who were so helpful and lovely to me.

I look forward to returning to Chartwell next semester and continuing to develop my skills and my knowledge surrounding Recreational Therapy and Dementia care.