Local nursing homes create, nurture connections this Nursing Home Week
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Premiere Washington Health Center staff sport T-shirts made especially for Nursing Home Week. Staff and residents are spending this week enjoying balloon tosses, carnival games, root beer floats and special treats – and looking forward to the pie in the face event Friday.
Courtesy of Mary Raye Novisel
Shirley Etling, 81, has a wild western time during LaFayette Manor’s singalong Monday afternoon. Staff and residents will participate in activities all week long in celebration of Nursing Home Week.
Courtesy of Mary Raye Novisel
Residents of LaFayette Manor channeled their inner John Waynes and enjoyed dressing up for the wild west singalong and other activities Monday. The activities are part of Nursing Home Week celebrations, held at skilled nursing facilities all week long.
Older men and women wearing their favorite or most extravagant hats paraded through the halls of Rolling Meadows Health Care Center in Waynesburg Tuesday as part of the skilled nursing facility’s Nursing Home Week celebrations.
“We have something planned each day. Most facilities do,” said Dené Rivera, activities coordinator at Rolling Meadows. “The staff and the residents get to do things together. They celebrate the relationship between residents and the staff.”
Every year since 1967, National Skilled Nursing Care Week (or Nursing Home Week) has been celebrated nationwide, with activities planned from Mother’s Day through the following Saturday. Founded by the American Health Care Association, the week recognizes the role skilled nursing care centers and staff play in helping older and disabled adults age gracefully.
Rolling Meadows kicked off Nursing Home Week with a Mother’s Day reception Sunday. The celebration continued Monday with a patriotic sing-along and apple pie. Wednesday, residents are encouraged to wear their favorite teams’ colors and compete in trivia, and Thursday begins with a watercolor art session followed by an afternoon of tie-dying.
“It’s fun,” Rivera said. “The more people that participate … the more fun.”
Thursday is Tie-Dye Day at Premiere Washington Health Center, too. Residents started the week with Mother’s Day Bingo, and left it all on the floor during Tuesday’s wheelchair races. And folks smiled for the photo booth camera while staff enjoys Rita’s Ice – a thank you to all who went above and beyond the call of duty during COVID-19.
Activities director Michael Naylor, director of education Debbie Jenkins and recreation specialist Marisa Henrickson agreed this year’s Nursing Home Week activities are more than commemoration of residents, staff and their relationships.
This year is about a return to normalcy.
“I think this year is especially important because we made it through,” said Henrickson. “This is kind of like our celebration for all of us who … hung in there.”
“(It’s a) thank you for your back-breaking work the last two years,” Jenkins added. “And all the support the community has given.”
The community has been generous to Premiere. Several organizations donated raffle baskets to the Washington-based facility; staff can try their luck at winning all week long. And Gateway Health donated decorations and prizes for the facility’s carnival day Thursday (yes, there will be cotton candy for residents and staff).
But the real fun – for some – is Friday’s Tattoos and Mocktails event.
“Before COVID hit, we did a lot of happy hours,” said Naylor. “Mocktails are a big hit.”
A big hit at LaFayette Manor Inc. in Uniontown is the ’50s day slated for Wednesday. Activities director Mary Raye Novisel said residents are invited to dress in their 1950s best and attend a dance, with live music by a local favorite.
Residents are also encouraged to compete in a friendly game of Twister.
“It’s bean bag Twister,” Novisel laughed.
After a howdy-doody day of Wild West fun Monday and a trip to the World’s Fair Tuesday – “We have milk bottle toss; we bought bears for them for the prizes,” said Novisel – it’s a Hawaiian luau kind of day Thursday. Friday, residents will enjoy Las Vegas-themed activities and more live music.
“The staff is having stuff all week long, same as the residents,” said Novisel. “The workers wouldn’t be here without the residents, and the residents wouldn’t be here without the workers. We have a really good repertoire with our residents, a really good relationship with them and the families. It’s very important.”
Linda Hook, activities assistant at Hawthorne Woods in Washington, said its important to show appreciation for skilled nursing staff. The facility is hosting a buffet for staff this week, and has activities planned for both staff and residents.
“We celebrate how they help all year round with the residents, and how much they care,” Hook said. “And, what a good job they do.”