About ludic group activities in Nursing Homes and of understanding their educational and therapeutic potential

Abstract

Inside the many kinds of long-term facilities, educational-therapeutic structured activities are very often absent or considered ineffective. They are assigned a minor role and occasionally used during free time, for strictly recreational purposes. This article aims to describe my experience in the planification of an organized ludic activity specifically meant to promote and facilitate those educational processes that ultimately increase the wellbeing of elderly patients, and in the observation of subsequent developments. The presentation of these recreational opportunities, both during free time and during “standard” medical therapy, and the raise of the general awareness towards them can be enacted through positive experiences matured in a proper setting, overseen by either professional educators or aptly prepared operators.