Sunday, January 3, 2010

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.

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