Published in The Times on September 24, 2001

Wheelchair bound Barbara Moniz, 59 doesn’t sit idly in her room twiddling her thumbs, or watching her four walls.  The resident at Orchard View Manor Nursing and Rehabilitation Center can attend a myriad of planned activities seven days a week, even during some evening hours too.  Once upon a time nursing facilities were known as places to warehouse the elderly.  Now many facilities are centers of life and activity.

Just one week ago, Moniz, a resident council present of the East Providence based nursing facility, along with 60 fellow residents traveled a quick 10-minute ride to a planned outing at Crescent Park Carousel.  Watching the carousel go round and round, and entranced by the lively music, the former Providence resident sat among 150 residents, families and facility staff, just enjoying herself.  Dietary staff provided the necessary nourishment – sandwiches, potato salad, potato chips, lot of popcorn and drinks.

Many years ago, Moniz lived right across the water from the carousel.  “You could always hear that music,” she fondly remembers, stating that she loved “riding those horses.” Now she has new memories of that carousel, like watching her 6-year old grandchild ride the horses, just the way she once did, lurching out the grab the rings.

Three full-time and one part-time staff, families and dozens of volunteers help with other outside getaways too, from taking the Newport Trolley Tour, picnics at Colt State Park and trips to Oakland Beach and Wickford Harbor.

Patricia Poissant’s, a 17-year veteran of Orchard View Manor’s activity department, has seen the facility’s activity calendar become jam-packed over the years.  Once no training was necessary for activity staff.  Now a 60-hour course offered by the University of Rhode Island is required for all activity staff, she says.

At the facility, 180 residents can learn quilting and crafts, and become physically active by playing balloon volleyball, chair dancing, and even take exercise and strength training programs scheduled three to four times a week.

“Residents can attend summer cookouts, sit on benches scattered throughout a large apple arbor, or even pick fresh vegetables from the facility’s garden,: Poissant says.  Each year East Providence residents look forward to the sampling of more than 500 apple pies sold throughout the community, all made by facility staff and residents.

According to Poissant, nursing facility residents can become active in a variety of facility-based clubs, organized for garden lovers, sports enthusiasts, naturists and even gourmet cooks.  Or they can cruise the internet.  Pictures of residents at outings and parties, with pets or children are sent out over the Web.  Computer savvy residents receive emails twice a day and can send back responses regularly.

Dobby the cat roams the halls, and five parakeets tweet and sing to residents as they are rolled in a big cage throughout the facility.  Residents can also be mesmerized by colorful fish swimming in salt and fresh water fish tanks.

Residents who can’t leave or choose to stay in their room have the opportunity for recreational activities too, Possaint tells All About Seniors.  For those avid current event followers, newspapers are delivered right to their rooms, and are available in the lobby and activity rooms.  Crossword puzzles, large print books and talking books for the blind are also made available.

Possaint states that staff even work with residents lying in a fetal position, going into their rooms to read, talk or even perform aromatherapy. “We want to make sure they are not forgotten or left out of activities,” she says.

Roberta Hawkins, state ombudsman and executive director of the Alliance for Better Long Term Care, is pleased to see the variety of activities offered by  orchard View Manor.  “Activity programming should not be just bingo,” he says, adding the quality of life can be experienced in good facilities like this.

Orchard View Manor, one of 30 nursing facilities participating in Building Bridges, is committed to intergenerational programming offered by the Alliance for Better Long Term Care.  While many nursing facilities only offer the programs monthly, Orchard View Manor along with a few other facilities go the extra mile by offering it every other week, Hawkins says.

At these activities young children are educated about the positives of growing older, Hawkins says, while the elders positively gain from the growing intergenerational relationship.  Additionally, the love that passes between the two generations is an unmeasurable benefit too, she says.

Hawkins recommends that before choosing a nursing facility one should learn more about its activity programming.  “Every facility has a different personality and some really put that extra effort into providing a total range of services, from health care to quality of life programming.”

Quality recreation programming is not being provided in many of the state’s 104 nursing facilities Hawkins stated.  “If offered, the programming would provide pleasure, physical. emotional and mental stimulation, not to mention the heart-warming human contact that is needed by the seniors with a wide variety of needs,” he adds.