Mar 07 2009
Another Saturday Spiritual Circle
As you recall, a spiritual circle is good for lower functioning residents in a long term care facility who connect with religion and religious music. This applies to most of the residents there because in that generation, most folks felt religion was extremely important.
Even higher functioning folks with dementia find these groups soothing and comforting.
Also a caregiver and a person with dementia can have a spiritual encounter together using some or all of the suggestions.
The theme for this week is music beecause I have been talking about how important music is to those with dementia.
For Hymns sing
He Keeps Me Singing,,
Music in My Soul, or some other song of choice
For regular songs sing:
Singin in the Rain,
The Sound of Music or a favorite song of choice
Here are rwo quotations for discussion
Music is God’s gift to man, the only art of heaven given on earth and the only art of earth we take to heaven
Music deepens our prayers and connects our lives to others
Here is a question for discussion:
What is your favorite kind of music and why? Make suggestions as necessary
Sensory:
Pass around some kind of an instrument all can touch and try such as a tamberine.
Story from
Chicken Soup for the Soul
Story abour two ladies who were both piano players. Both ladies had a stroke. One was paralyzed on the left side. The other paralyzed on the right side. Both still wanted to play music. So they played a song together. Each one used her string side. After practicing,,they made beautiful music together
More thoughts:
When we sing a prayer, it becomes a glorious connection of our emotions to our beliefs.Glory to God in the highest and peace to his people on earth.The music adds depth and feeling to the words and enables us to connect more fully to the spirit of the prayer.
Ending prayer or psalm of choice such as This is the Day
Yes, it seems to be important to find that activity subject that they can relate to.
Karen
Thanks for the comment on Veteran Homeschooler. I am also an Activities Director. Your site is actually what made me decide to start a blog here. But I’m so busy with work, I rarely have time to post. I do Spiritual Circles, we call them Bible Study at our facility, but it’s virtually the same as this.
I’m very dedicated to improving the lives of seniors in long term care facilities, but like all of us, frustrated with the level of care in many of them..