Bag Pipe Day

 For Bagpipe day we listened to Celtic music and made gifts for the staff. They were bags that could be used to hold masks. The thank you notes from patients were attached with pipe cleaners.

Drum Circle

Drum circle is a possibility thanks to plastic drumsticks from Amazon, gray bins, and cleanings in between uses. 

I use a lot of old rock hits and other well known songs like "Beat It", "All She Wants to Do Is Dance", "One Love", "We Will Rock You", and "Respect". I often suggest a pattern for the patients to imitate (fast, slow, switching hands, hitting the sides of the drums, making a pattern on the top of the drum, etc) but also encourage them to do whatever sounds good. Some can only use one hand, some clap or tap their feet. Some dance or sing. 

We also chat about the songs as they come up on shuffle. 

My last song is always "Jump In the Line" because they are warmed up and we can end on a high note. The song gives directions so we shake our sticks, hit them together, dance, and sing as a group until the final verse.


 

Covid Changes

Some changes in my building are that we have to take our temperatures and answer a questionaire when we enter the building.

During patient contact, we must wear masks and be even more diligent about cleansing our hands between people. We also try to sit the patients 6 feet apart and intervene before they touch each other.

Wearing the mask in a loud room full of an audience with hearing problems on top of their dementia has been a difficulty but we are going to get through this.