Motivation, friendliness keys to getting men involved with activities
Tuesday August 7, 2007 -- Deron Hamel
Being a male activity staff member at a long-term care home can be a big plus when it comes to getting men involved with programming, says Craig Forrest, assistant life enrichment co-ordinator at Forest Hill.

Forrest says it can be tough to get men at the Kanata long-term care home involved in activities. That said, male residents tend to respond well to Forrest’s humorous, easy-going personality, which he mingles with jokes.

“I definitely think (it makes) them feel a lot more comfortable,” says Forrest. “I just treat them like one of the guys.”

Forrest admits creating programs for men can be challenging. In the past he’s tried setting up men’s groups, but they fell flat.

Still, Forrest says he has a couple of cards up his sleeve.

“One of my goals is to start some sort of woodworking program,” he says. “I’ve worked in homes before where they had it, and literally they were self-sufficient. What they made they would sell at crafts sales and it would be more than enough to cover the building costs and they’d even be able to buy new tools every now and then.”

A woodworking program, he says, could have a lot of potential.

“Especially when they see that they have an end result and something they can actually sell and make a little money,” he notes.

Men are living longer now than they ever have and as a result, there are an increasing number of men in long-term care homes. As that number continues to grow, Forrest says homes need to put a strong effort into finding suitable men’s programming.

Collins Ferguson, a personal support worker and supportive measures specialist at Almonte Country Haven, believes the biggest obstacle to getting men involved with programming is figuring out how to motivate them.

“Men stand back, see what’s going on and then participate later,” he says. “They might see that it’s a fun thing to do but you’ve got to get them out of the room to get there and do it.”

Ferguson says one of his biggest success stories with a men’s activity was having them help him build a duck hutch.

After making the frame and mapping out where the pieces should be connected, a few of the home’s men nailed the pieces together to make the hutch.

Like most men, male residents at the Almonte home like their wheels. With this in mind, Ferguson contacted some vintage automobile owners and had them bring their cars to the home during its July 25 barbecue.

His idea was a big hit with the guys.

“The men got to pop the hood on them, go around and check the oil, go for a little drive around the block,” says Ferguson.