Male residents unattracted to structured programs Wednesday August 1, 2007 -- Deron Hamel
Men are from Mars, women are from Venus. The old adage applies to many aspects of life, including programming at long-term care homes, says Denise Ansell, life enrichment co-ordinator (LEC) at Streamway Villa in Cobourg.

It can be a challenge to create quality programming for male residents in long-term care. Women represent the vast majority of residents in any long-term care home. As such, most programming is aimed at the female segment of the population.

The key difference between what interests men and what interests women, says Ansell, is structure.

“What we find at our home is that it’s very hard to motivate men to do group programming,” she says. “Men (prefer) to saunter over to the coffee shop and have coffee with their buddies. They don’t call each other ahead of time to make plans to meet. Sometimes I think men’s programming is just too structured for men.”

Females, on the other hand, tend to enjoy structured group activities, says Ansell.

To get more men out to programming, Ansell suggests staff change its approach when informing men about activities.

Ansell cites a recent example where a car show was taking place in Cobourg and staff organized an outing with the hope of attracting men. Rather than asking the men in advance, staff waited until the last minute to see if they were interested in going. As a result, the men were interested in the event, she says.

“If you would have gone to them a week ago and said, ‘Do you want to go to a car show in a week?’ they would have probably said no,” says Ansell. “But if you say to them an hour before you go, ‘We’re going down to look at some cars, are you coming?’ they’re more likely to do it.”

There are, however, activities which work well for men. Woodworking programs, in particular, have been well-received by Streamway’s male population.

However, the activities men seem to enjoy most at the home, says Ansell, are ones which are not only simple, but also ones which aren’t designed by staff.

And what works best for men?

“We have a courtyard and they’re outside, and they go an sit in a corner and they shoot the breeze,” she says. “That’s what works well for men.”