Men’s Group – My New Adventure

As many of you know I volunteer for Alzheimers Australia to raise awareness for the disease in the community. I am also pleased to announce that I am also volunteering at my Dad’s Memory Support Unit (Care Facility) in a ‘hands on’ capacity as a co-ordinator of the ‘Men’s Group’ . I am really excited to be working with men with dementia and especially in a field that needs developing. It is so much different to sales, yet rewarding in a completely different way.

I am looking at ways to engage the men by arranging ‘doing’ activities as opposed to the women’s group that is more based on ‘talking’ ( funny about that!). If anyone has any ideas on activities that may be suitable for older men in particular with memory loss it would be appreciated.

They can do basic handyman things like sanding some wood, or painting etc. I want to start them with some golf putting practice, some pretend fishing,and maybe some very basic q&a quizzes that involve pictures of famous landmarks.

Any suggestions will be appreciated as I want to think outside the square and really cater specifically for men. I won’t bring the ‘stripper-pole’ in until at least week 5 or 6 🙂 just kidding of course ladies, that would be too dangerous. So we will be compromising by only having lap dances using pretend money!…haha

I will be posting a weekly blog report of how the Men’s Group is progressing and what we get up to. I am sure it won’t be smooth sailing with me in control, but may make for some interesting reading. If you have any clever names for our Men’s Group that is appreciated also. Eg Men’s Shed, Cave Time, blokes world etc…

In true Partington style, I received my shiny new volunteer badge from Management last week and 20 minutes later snapped it in half in the glovebox of my van. Ahhhhhhhh. Only I can ruin a badge before I get to wear it.:-)

Stay tuned.