Dare to be Dairy-Free

Our Alzheimer's day care gets food delivered from a special nutrition program. We are not licensed to do any cooking and everyone receives the same food. Normally there is milk, a hot protein, some kind of starch, and either a salad or soup.

We appreciate the thought that goes into preparing the food, however, in certain cases, there are clients who does not eat something from the set menu. They can have a preference or may be allergic to the item (knowingly and unknowingly). One of our clients does not eat fish, another does not like chicken, and many are lactose-intolerant.

My concerns about the menu that it is often over-loaded with too much of one food group. We had an incident with one client this past week when the menu was cheese ravioli and caesar salad. You can probably guess that she cannot have dairy.

According to the Whole Foods website "Some people who avoid dairy are allergic to the dairy proteins themselves and must avoid all dairy products, including milk, cheese, butter, cream cheese, cottage cheese, sour cream, ice cream, whey, or casein. Others avoid dairy because they lack the enzyme lactase, which digests milk sugar, lactose."

Lucky for us, we knew about her condition beforehand by asking family members and the doctor about her allergies. While we have soy milk to substitute, our client was upset because we gave her spaghetti and other clients had ravioli. She was also upset because we could not give her the salad because the cheese was already mixed into the greens.

This is not a single incident. The menu rarely provides a vegetarian option. It is perhaps twice a month that we get something that is not meat or fish.

Here are the options I suggest if the food program does not provide a few alternative meals:

-Keep meat around to make a sandwich
-Have canned tuna or ravioli (vegetarian)
-Soy milk, juice and other alternatives to regular milk
-Have cookies to keep the clients happy

It is difficult to please every palate, especially sensitive tastes such as our clientele. Although giving them options is more work to the staff, giving them choices empower them and encourages them to eat. You have to like what you eat.


http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/nutrition/dairy-free.php

Combination with Staff Members and Participants in Activities: Best Match?

The Series: Elements of Planning and Coordinating Successful Activities
5. Combination with Staff Members and Participants in Activities: Best Match?

There are best matches between staff members and clients in regards to conducting activities. We are taking care of senior clients with memory impairments. However, before they are our clients at the Day Care Center, they are human beings who have emotions, unique personalities, values, and life philosophies. Also, before being activities specialists, we are human beings as well who are very different, were brought up uniquely, and have different culture, customs, and beliefs.

The suggestion regarding staffing for every activity at the center is that the team member should respect each team member’s perspectives. As the activities coordinator, the main role is to have a flexible leadership with a firm belief in the team. In another words, the matchmaker. If one of the team members can’t work well with other team members, then everything that we do at the center for our clients would be failed and lose the balance in the working relationship. Of course, we can hide this unbalanced and awkward relationship among the team on the surface in order to not to let our clients notice. However, surprisingly, our clients are very sensitive and aware of noticing what is going on around them.

Likely, our clients also have a unique dynamic and very different from one to another. Some don’t get along with each other at the same table; the others can be best friends each other. Interestingly, they can be argumentative and competitive. If we know that some of them have been having conflicts each other, we would try to separate them for peace and happiness for other clients.

It also is very interesting that some clients tend to attach to one staff but not to another. This reflection definitely tells us how important a combination with staff and clients is. This is the main reason why a combination with staff members and participants in activities should not be less regarded. The key to successful activities is to a balance and combination. Staff should respect each other in the team when we conduct activities as well as we should be careful to think how to place clients during activities.

We are all different but we are all human beings. It is the simplest thing to remember; however somehow it can be the hardest thing in the working environment to appreciate for.

How to Deal with Death

I have not dealt with death on a personal level until my grandpa passed about when I started my second year of college. As a student, there is no 101 on how to handle loss of a loved one. My grandpa was a great man with many vices. He drank beer everyday, sometimes multiples cans are sitting empty on the table. He smoked so much to the point where every fingernail was discolored. Those were habits he picked up as a kid in Vietnam. Smoking and drinking is not such a big deal there as it is here in California. So when he died of cancer, no one was surprised. He still wanted to drink and smoke even when the doctor diagnosed him.

I did not deal with his death well. I was sleeping when I got the call very early in the morning and an hour distance away. I just laid there and cried. That was my grandpa.

In this field of work, I have dealt with many deaths, but it is different each time. The last time was a client of the center who was very frail and could not verbally communicate with us. When we heard of the news that she had passed, questions came up on how to tell other clients if they had asked why our client has not been coming to the center. In an effort to respect the privacy of our client and not to bring depression upon our clients, we were told if any clients had asked, she say the family decided not to come anymore.

My point is that when I interviewed and got the position, I was never told the proper procedures or process of dealing with it. I was not given a phone number to call if I was grieving. Furthermore, I had questions about communications with the clients' family. Should I send flowers? Could I attend the service? Would I be able to offer support outside of work hours? Was there ethical or legal boundaries?

Here is my suggestion. There should be a meeting for all staff so they can be on the same page about any questions they may have. I certainly did not have the answers and it seems there were too many different ones.