Has anyone set up a clowning group within a nursing home with their residents?

Hello Flutterbye.

Pixie Sprite and I visit a local nursing home twice a month. There are 4 wards to the facility: the "lock down" room for dementia patients who might wander off, the dementia wing where people have disabilities and can't wander off, the "treatment" wing where dialysis and perpetual oxygenation and other treatments are required, and the "transient" wing where patients come from the hospital until they are ready to go home. We visit each of these wings on successive bi-weekly visits, so get back to each only every other month.

None of these groups of people are conducive to forming a nursing home "alley" of clowns and the infrequency of our visits to each wing precludes forming such a group anyway.

Our experience is that the brief one-on-one caring visits are sufficient for our purpose.

I will be interested to hear of other clown experiences in this environment, however.

Thanks for posting. It has been awfully quiet in here lately.

Flutterbye,

I haven't seen this done but it would be a big undertaking and maybe a lot of frustration. You would no longer be seen as guest clown but as a mentor or teacher. It seems like retirement homes, like hospital dialysis units are better served with infrequent visits. This way, people look forward to your appearance, instead of taking for granted. What about a "clown for the day" where you put on simple makeup and use clothes from a box of "clowny looking stuff" that would be worn over the person's clothing. Let them pick their own costume. They could then be included in a simple clown skit,magic trick or adlib exchange.How about a picture of them to put on the bulletin board following each session.