The Activity Department NEVER closes at Retirement
Inn. Our residents have 24-hour access to our libraries and activity room. A jigsaw puzzle is also a popular late
night attraction. Boredom is a four-letter word here and it is very rarely experienced by our residents.
"Can't" is another four letter word in the activity room. New residents are often surprised at what they CAN do once
they try. Regardless of disability, a resident can do pretty much whatever they want to do-it is simply a matter of
adapting the activity to the resident. Perhaps it's just a matter of a bigger BINGO card or a special deck of cards
or an assistive device to give the resident the tools they need for the activity. The old adage "Where there's a will,
there's a way" applies to anything the resident wants to do.
At Retirement Inn, we recognize that everyone
has their ideas as to what constitutes "fun." We also realize that what some consider "fun," such as staying in the
dark all day watching television may not be the healthiest "fun" so we try to work with residents to assist them in building
a healthy AND fun activity program. The wide variety of activities, offered by Retirement Inn, allows us to meet
every resident's idea of "fun" on a daily basis. We do this by offering a broad range of intellectual, artistic, spiritual,
physical and emotionally stimulating activities. Every effort is made to ensure that every resident experiences
some degree of success at whatever game or activity they play.
Intellectual stimulation is provided through
several games and guest speakers. Working a group crossword puzzle, Trivial Pursuit*, Wheel of Fortune*, and Detect-O-Word
are just a few of our most popular games. We offer an "elder" style Trivia Pursuit that is custom tailored,
by our activity director, to meet each resident's cognitive abilities. There are several residents who enjoy playing
BINGO and it is offered several times a week for
their enjoyment.
We have numerous residents who are "crafty"
in more ways than one and they enjoy our arts and crafts program. We have a fully operational kiln and many residents
receive much pleasure from ceramics. Ceramics works very well with elderly residents in that one does not have to have
any talent to make something beautiful. This really helps build self-esteem. In addition, we offer sand art,
beading, paint-by-number and many other various craft projects and/or building type projects. Frequent
outings to museums,
art galleries, and concerts round out our artistic program.
Non-denominational services are held twice
weekly in our lovely chapel. We also have communion once a week for any resident who wishes to partake in this type
of service. There is a resident led prayer group that meets every
morning. Ailing residents are lifted up
as well as our country and world leaders in this non-denominational group. For our Jewish residents, we work closely
with the Jewish Community Center and several Rabbis to make certain that all holy days are celebrated appropriately.
All major religious holidays are celebrated.
Daily exercise is a very important part
of our activity program. Twice weekly an exercise physiologist leads our residents in strength and balance
training as well as fall prevention. We offer a low-impact 30-minute exercise program on the other days.
Our fully equipped exercise room gets a work out as many of our residents burn those calories on the exercise bikes, weight
machines. When the weather is comfortable, many of our residences enjoy short walks around our community. Whether
it is to take their pets out or for pure pleasure, walking is an excellent way to enjoy the beauty of our surroundings.
During the Winter, we make several early morning trips to the Galleria Mall so that our residents can continue their exercise
in an interesting environment.
We place an extremely high value on our residents'
emotional needs. One of the ways we address these needs is
to minimize "the three plagues" of institutionalism:
loneliness, boredom, and helplessness. Retirement
Inn utilizes several pet mascots and brings in a curator from The Dallas Zoo twice a month to allow animals to work with our residents. We also have
a resident garden for residents to work in during appropriate weather conditions.
