Improvements for activity

I am the activity co-ordinator at culm valley care centre which is a 61-room nursing and residential home in Devon, we use your PCS system and over time I have come to find it very useful for recording our homes activities however, over the past year I have come across a couple things that I think could improve your system and help make records more accurate for resident’s notes when involving activities.

1- No jigsaw button- in the majority of nursing and residential homes jigsaws are used as an activity on almost a daily basis. Although the “general activity “ button is the shape of a jigsaw for such a popular activity why not have this as an option.
2- No seasonal button- for example over the last week we have held lots of Halloween based activities which could have been logged under this and with Christmas approaching this could be a very useful addition.
3- No group activity options- would it be possible to have a group of residents all logged as doing the same activity together so it shows they have interacted with each other and save time for carers and activity staff when logging group activities, if this is out of reach at this point in time could it be possible to have a “ group activity” button which can be used to show that people have interacted with others in a group activity rather then it being implied as a solo activity or just with staff.
4- Board game button- yes there is a “played games” button with a chess peace icon but could there be a more specific board game button. However, I do think the “played game “ button is still needed but with a different icon as activities like bean bag toss and golf target games don’t really make sense under a chess icon.
5- Crossword changed to puzzles- why not change the crossword button to a more general puzzle button so activities like wordsearches and sudoku can also fit under this icon.
6- Exercises and armchair exercises- is it necessary to have both of these as armchair exercises are still a form of exercise and could just fit in under general exercise.
7- Wheeled out – I think it would be beneficial if there was a button for when residents that are taken out in their wheelchairs into town or the park or even round the grounds but for it to specify that they are not going out for a walk as they are wheelchair users and cannot walk. This button would be very useful and lead to more accurate records.
8- Pets button changed to Animals button- we often have visits from animals that are more exotic animals such as snakes and chameleons or farm yard animals like donkeys and sheep dogs, however we have no accurate way of recording this as the only animal themed button is pet specific where if this was made more general to just an animal button this would cover both pet visit and other animal visits.
9- Cigarette and vaping- is it really necessary to have both of these buttons could they not be grouped together under a general “smoking” button.
10- Horse riding- does this button gets used often enough to justify its existence.

I hope these points get genuinely considered as improvements and I hope to see some of these changes in the future.

Kind sincerely
Jess -Activity co-ordinator