Low Vision Activities in Skilled Care

Skilled nursing facilities are often called upon to provide low-vision activities for elderly or disabled patients. Devising these activities can be a challenge, but they are opportunities to help patients enhance other senses, in groups and individually. Activities can be adjusted to the sight level and awareness level of patients.

Activity Aprons

• Activity aprons have fastened onto them a variety of objects with different shapes, textures, colors, sounds and even scents. Low-vision and Alzheimer's patients often find comfort in using them when tied around the waist. Touching the objects provides stimulation and distracts from other more negative behaviors, such as picking at skin or throwing objects. Group activities can involve a circle of patients taking turns identifying the objects on each patient's apron and then switching the aprons around the circle to identify objects on different aprons.

Music

• Musical activities provide stimulation and socializing experiences. Gathering a group of patients around a piano to sing oldies or playing a part of a song for them to identify stimulates interest and participation, especially if the music is familiar. Give the patients rhythmic instruments, such as rose sticks, cow bells, rain sticks, tambourines and hand drums, to increase participation.

Listening Group

• Bring a group of patients together in the recreation room to listen to an audio book. Depending of the patients' levels of awareness, ask questions to encourage them to talk about the book they just heard. Encourage discussion, if possible, on this book and other types of books they would like to hear.

  Play old radio shows such as mysteries or soap operas that may be familiar to your patients. Try to get a discussion going on when they first heard these shows, what they know about them, who were the stars in the roles and which shows had spin-offs.

Reality Orientation

• Other patients may have a difficult time staying oriented to the hour, day and season, especially if new to the skilled nursing facility living or are in various stages of dementia. Reality orientation groups provide a time and place to remind patients of what day and time it is, to talk about that day's activities, what is being served in the cafeteria for meals and when the next outing will occur. It is also a good time to get patients to talk about what happened in history on a particular day, where they were, what they thought and what they remember about that day.

Arts and Crafts

• Low-vision patients may need some help starting arts and crafts projects, but once up and running, they can usually continue on their own. These activities can be set up according to difficulty and skill level. For example, patients with extremely low vision may start with sorting a bowl of beads by shape and texture, and then perhaps move on to stringing them when they are familiar with the beads by touch. Caring for plants can also be a very low-vision activity. Knitting and crocheting, pottery, and making Christmas ornaments are all activities that can be set up in basic, intermediate and advanced groups, taking into consideration both a patient's level of skill and ability to see.