Facilitating Spontaneous Leisure Activities
Host Institution: Baycrest Health Sciences
Seniors with cognitive challenges benefit from leisure activities. However, research has shown that those living in institutional settings participate in far fewer activities and spend more time alone than in community settings. As well, organizations will be mandated soon to move away from delivering prescribed activities within long-term care settings.
To address the gap, this project is evaluating the impact of training a team of volunteers to lead the Program for Leisure Engagement in Active and Spontaneous Experiences (PLEASE) among two groups of residents living with cognitive impairment at the Baycrest Apotex Centre. PLEASE requires volunteers to engage residents in spontaneous one-on-one or small group activities such as story-telling, games, reading, music and art. It was launched in January 2016 and expanded with improvements in January 2017, supported by $28,000 in funding from CABHI.
Preliminary findings show that it is very feasible to train a team of volunteers to provide person-centred, spontaneous activities for residents with cognitive impairment. Both staff and volunteers reported significantly increased active engagement and enhanced quality of life for residents across a variety of measures, particularly those in the social domain such as talking and making eye contact with others. As well, volunteers found the PLEASE training very positive and helpful. The final project report will be completed in the summer of 2017, and results will be used to inform future volounteer training programs.