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I met with Peggy Graham’s committee to update the state approved activity director’s course on Oct. 14^th. Representatives from DFS,DSS, the Community Colleges, NCALTCF and NCHCFA were present along with Kathy Wright-Moore, James Jordan and me. It was quite a candid discussion about the class and where we need to go from here.

Here’s some of the stuff I learned:

	312 students passed the class in 2003 through the NC community college system. The class was offered through 24 community colleges.
	NCALTCF (the original rest home association group) is also developing their own assisted living activity coordinator’s class which will be 50 hours long. They want a big emphasis in the class to be on mental health and providing activities to residents that are mentally handicapped. This class will be offered soon.
	Everyone agreed the current course is not working and are not happy that the class is not consistently taught across the state in the community college system.
	Distance learning options need to be explored. Whether this is in the format of online classes, CD-ROMs or other multi-media approaches, who knows at this point. If anyone is aware of any distance learning programs currently available, please let me know so I can pass the resources on to Peggy Graham for review.
	The group consensus is that a basic activity director’s course needs to be developed that will meet the basic needs of activity folks at all levels of care. It would not be geared to one level of care any more than another. The length of the course will be dictated by the curriculum that needs to be taught.
	A tiered approach will probably be developed with multiple courses available that build on each other. The basic class would be required by all levels. The next class, along with the basic class, would also be required for nursing home activity directors, but not assisted living activity directors. Then potentially, a 3^rd class could be developed that would give students what they would need, along with the two prior classes, to meet the National activity certification standards. We’re got a long way to go to make this happen and a lot of negotiating to do. Meanwhile, things will run status quo, in classes offered by the community colleges.
	The group agreed that the next move was to start fleshing out the outline for the basic activity class to be developed.

And that’s where you come in. I am trying to get feedback from activity professionals about what topics should be presented in the basic activity class. Please let me know what topics you think need to be included. I want to make sure that I am representing NCAPA’s ideas, not just my own. I need this information by Monday, November 1^st. I will also pull my notes from a session many of the class teachers and interested NCAPA members attended at NCAPA’s Spring 2004 conference on this topic. Specific regulations will not be presented in this class, nor teaching students to fill out the MDS. It’s only basic info that can be used at any level of care.

FYI – Following the Community College meeting the other day, I spoke with James Jordan and Kathy Wright-Moore about presenting curriculum topics for the basic activity course. We are in agreement that whatever topics are presented by the activity professionals needs to be supported by NCAPA & COAP jointly. Thank you for supporting us in this effort!

Please pass this on to other NCAPA members who may be interested in submitting ideas.

Barbara Hearne

NCAPA

State Class Liaison

barbarah@aldersgateccrc.com

Phone: 704.532.7276

Fax: 704.532.7069

Send mail to wstovall@carolina.rr.com with questions or comments about this web site. Copyright © 2003 NCAPA

Send mail to wstovall@carolina.rr.com with questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 2003 NCAPA