The Memory Unit OT

Holiday decorating is a natural and easy activity to integrate into the care and treatments you provide on The Memory Unit. Let’s talk about how to modify and make it skilled.

Provide a Single Item at a Time, Giving Clear Verbal Direction

We certainly don’t want to make this process overwhelming or too stimulating. So rather than laying out every ornament and decoration, offer each Resident one item at a time. Provide clear verbal direction as needed based on that Resident’s cognitive needs.

Pick Decorations that are Easily Recognizable and Easy to Display

Select ornaments that are light-weight and easy to hang on the tree. Find decorations that your Residents are likely to recognize and that your Residents will associate with the holiday.

Tree Decorating can Happen in Sitting or Standing

Wheelchairs can pull right up to the tree. You could also set a few chairs around the base of the tree. If you’re doing this as a group activity, encourage Residents who can tolerate standing to decorate the upper half of the tree, allowing Residents in sitting to access the lower half.

Who Says We can’t put Ornaments on Garland Too?

If you run out of space on the tree, you can always decorate garland with smaller ornaments.

Find other Surfaces that can Be Easily Decorated

You can always work with Residents to string lights up around interior windows and doorways. For Residents who need to work from a seated position, place garland or stocking hooks on lower surfaces (like the chair rail, the nurse’s station, or the welcome desk). This will give Residents more space to hang ornaments and stockings.

Make it a Sensory Experience

In real, everyday life we typically associate holiday decorating with other sensory experiences; the warmth and sweetness of hot cocoa, the comfort of classic Christmas music, the smell of the pine needles on the tree, the taste of a fresh sugar cookie. Dementia does not need to rob individuals of these experiences – so integrate them into your holiday activities, groups, and sessions.

These scented ornaments are really great when using artificial trees and greenery.

Turn Decorating into Days of Sessions

There are tons of fun crafts, homemade ornaments, and wreath decorating projects that can be used as sessions throughout the month. Many of my Residents have made their own wreaths for their front doors for years. These types of activities are familiar and often highly engaging.

But How am I Skilling This?

Anyone can help a Resident put an ornament on a tree… how is this skilled therapy that I can bill for?

Great question. Remember that skilled treatment starts with skilled activity analysis. So when you’re looking at these intervention ideas, you have to relate them to 3 key questions:

1. What is my Resident having difficulty with?
2. Why does it matter that this Resident is having difficulty with that task(s)?
3. How can this activity work to improve or address that area of difficulty?

In other words, what goals have you set for this individual and how does engaging in this activity work towards that goal?

These activities could be a way to address any area of function or occupation you want, so long as you’re providing skilled activity tolerance and providing therapeutic grading and performance assessment throughout.

Check this post for more info on how to tailor any task into a skilled intervention: