An Easy Way to Decorate a Resident’s Room (with minimal equipment and no damage to the walls)

I love using this trick to add a little personal touch to a Resident’s room.

What You’ll Need.

small Command hooks
twine or other string of similar thickness
clothes pins (I like the really tiny ones!)
photographs, greeting cards, pictures, or anything else your Resident might like to display on the wall

What You’ll Do.

Install the Command hooks, following the package instructions. I prefer these small ones because they hold onto the twine really well and blend in with the wall nicely (and the pack comes with 45 hooks, which lets me use one pack for lots of Residents)
Wrap the twine around the hooks, using a single loop. You don’t even have to tie a knot around the hook, the weight of the clothes pins will hold the twine in place as long as the clothes pins are evenly distributed.
Use clothes pins to attach photos, greeting cards, pictures, or anything else your Resident might want to display

Note: items the size of a standard greeting card or smaller work best – when things get too heavy, the clothes pins and twine won’t hold up as well

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Allison Brush, MS, OTR/L (@thememoryunitot)

How You’ll Document.

A task like this can accomplish several things.

It can be a simple and easy strategy to help a Resident move into a new room. It can help me to build rapport with the Resident, and gives space to discuss any negative feelings that are associated with the move or relocation to this room.

Sometimes this is simply a sensory-style session. “Utilized photo hanging task to provide sensory break and allow for space to discuss various emotions associated with recent move to long term care.”

Sometimes I’ll use this as a reminiscence-style session. “Utilized photo hanging task in Resident room, providing intentional questions and cues throughout to promote discussion on short- and long-term memories. Reality and current events interjected appropriately by therapist throughout discussion. Resident demonstrated appropriate attention and recall 50% of the time.”

Sometimes this is more of an exercise. “Utilized photo hanging task to promote upright standing posture, standing balance, and shoulder flexion above 90*. Resident demonstrating increased distal weakness when proximal shoulder muscles challenged beyond 90*. Required min assist to maintain safe standing posture.”

As with any activity, it’s all about the ‘why‘ behind the task. Why and how does this particular task address the functional, physical, and cognitive deficits that you and the Resident are working to resolve? Your answer to that question will be your means of documenting the task.