Assisted Living Activities — A Real Week at Both Communities

In this article

1. What the state actually requires
2. A week at Sugarmill Manor
3. A week at The Gardens
4. Memory care is scheduled differently
5. Nobody has to join in
6. Seeing it for yourself

A week at Sugarmill Manor or The Gardens has something scheduled every single day, morning and afternoon. Florida requires assisted living communities to run an ongoing activities program on at least six days a week, and to post the calendar where residents gather. What that looks like in practice is the part families actually want to see, so here is a real week at both of our communities.

What the state actually requires

The Florida rule on resident care standards sets the floor. A community must provide an ongoing activities program with "diversified individual and group activities in keeping with each resident's needs, abilities, and interests." Those activities have to be available at least six days a week, for a total of not less than twelve hours, and the calendar must be posted in the common areas.

Two details in that rule are worth knowing before you tour anywhere.

The first is that television does not count. A community cannot park residents in front of a screen and call it programming, unless the broadcast is a one time event of genuine interest.

The second is that residents are supposed to help plan it. The rule requires the community to consult residents about selecting and scheduling activities, and to be able to show how, through resident meetings, a council, group discussions, or a suggestion box. When you tour, ask which of those they use. The answer tells you whether the calendar is built with the people living there or handed to them.

A week at Sugarmill Manor

Sugarmill Manor in Homosassa carries something before noon and something after it on all seven days.

Mornings open early. Bible study on Tuesday, exercise on Thursday, chair Zumba on Friday, puzzles on Saturday, adult coloring on Sunday. Bingo runs twice a week, Tuesday afternoon and Thursday morning, and it is the best attended thing on the calendar by a wide margin.

Afternoons are craft, music and movies, plus two outings. Wednesday is a shopping trip and Thursday is a store run. Both leave after lunch.

A week at The Gardens

The Gardens in Crystal River is built around getting outside. There is outdoor time at ten in the morning on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, four mornings a week, and the courtyard is the center of the place.

Art runs through the week in a way it does not at Sugarmill Manor: watercolors on Tuesday morning, nature painting Tuesday afternoon, seashell and seasonal art on Friday, and craft hour on Monday and Friday. Two outings leave in the morning, one on Monday and a library run on Friday.

Two days are named rather than scheduled by the hour. Wednesday is a wellness day, manicures and gardening. Saturday is nail day. Sunday is a church service video. A named day is a planned day, not an empty one, and the calendar shows it that way on purpose.

A hydration social runs daily at one in the afternoon. Outings depend on the weather and can move.

Memory care is scheduled differently

The secured memory care neighborhood does not simply run the same calendar in a different room. Sugarmill Manor has memory care story time on Monday morning, and sessions in the neighborhood are sized smaller on purpose.

The Alzheimer's Association recommends exactly that adjustment: a large social gathering can overwhelm someone living with dementia while the same person does well in a small group. Their guidance is to build on what a person has always enjoyed, to focus on enjoyment rather than achievement, and to keep the familiar rhythm of a day intact. Activities adapted this way can also reduce agitation and wandering, which is a clinical reason to run them, not just a social one.

If your mother is moving into memory care, ask the administrator what her neighborhood is doing that week specifically. It is a different answer than the community calendar, and it should be.

Nobody has to join in

This is the question families ask most, and the honest answer is that participation is voluntary and always has been. Selecting among social and leisure activities is a resident right in the same Florida rule that requires the program to exist.

Some residents come to everything. Some come to bingo and nothing else. Some sit at the edge of the room with coffee and watch, which is its own form of taking part, and after a few weeks many of them move a little closer to the table.

What the research supports is worth saying plainly. The National Institute on Aging links social engagement in later life to better cognitive function, and low engagement to a higher risk of dementia. That is an association rather than a promise. But it is why a calendar with real things on it matters more than a lobby that looks nice.

Seeing it for yourself

A calendar tells you what is offered. It does not tell you how many people actually show up, or whether the staff running it seem glad to be there.

You can look through photographs from both communities, and the current week for each is on the activities page. The better test is to come at an hour when something is running. Tuesday afternoon at Sugarmill Manor or a Monday morning outdoors at The Gardens will tell you more in twenty minutes than a brochure will.

Book a time to visit and ask to sit in on whatever is happening.

Frequently asked questions

What activities do assisted living communities have to provide in Florida?

Florida's resident care standards require an ongoing activities program with individual and group activities matched to each resident's needs, abilities and interests. Scheduled activities must be available at least six days a week, totaling no less than twelve hours, and the calendar must be posted where residents gather. Watching television does not count toward the twelve hours.

Does my parent have to take part in activities?

No. Choosing among social and leisure activities is a resident right under the same Florida rule that requires the program to exist. Some residents come to everything, some come only to bingo, and some watch from the edge of the room with a cup of coffee.

What is there to do at Sugarmill Manor during the week?

Something every morning and every afternoon, seven days a week. Bible study, exercise, chair Zumba, puzzles and adult coloring in the mornings, then craft, live music, movies and bingo in the afternoons. Bingo runs twice a week and there are two outings, a shopping trip on Wednesday and a store run on Thursday.

What is there to do at The Gardens during the week?

Outdoor time runs four mornings a week, with watercolors, nature painting, seashell art and craft hour through the rest of the week. Two outings leave in the morning, one on Monday and a library trip on Friday. Wednesday is a wellness day and Saturday is nail day, and a hydration social runs daily at one in the afternoon.

Are memory care activities different?

Yes. Sessions in the secured memory care neighborhood are kept to smaller groups, which is what the Alzheimer's Association recommends, because a large gathering can overwhelm someone living with dementia while the same person does well in a small one. Ask the administrator what the neighborhood is doing that week rather than reading the community calendar.

Sources

• Florida Administrative Code, Rule 59A-36.007, Resident Care Standards
• Alzheimer's Association, Activities
• National Institute on Aging, Social Isolation and Loneliness Outreach Toolkit
• National Institute on Aging, What Do We Know About Healthy Aging?

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Written by

Cameron Hernando Clark

Community Relations Director

Cameron Hernando Clark is the Community Relations Director for The Manors of Citrus. He writes this family guide to help Citrus County families make sense of assisted living and memory care, drawing on the day to day of running two family owned communities on Florida's Nature Coast.