Media Project

When blindly choosing an item to center our media project, I drew a manila folder. How in the world I was going to come up with an intervention centered around a manila folder was beyond me. After trying to think of the most creative and innovative projects, it hit me that it didn't have to be extravagant to be effective. After reading about my client, I realized that simplicity would be the way to go in order to accomplish his goals.

My client, Maurice, is an 83 year old retired dairy farmer who was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease a decade ago. He also has bilateral cataracts which contribute to his poor vision. His speech is somewhat difficult to understand at times, especially when he is fatigued. He reports increased feelings of isolation and frustration as a result of his speech production problems, the inevitable decline in his speech skills with disease progression, and his increasing reliance on others for help with his ADLs. Maurice is a very social person and enjoys visits from friends and neighbors. His wife reports that his memory is becoming more impaired; however, he consistently recognizes familiar people and is oriented to person and place. He likes to have choices in his daily routine such as what shirt he will wear, even though he needs moderate to full assistance for all ADLs. He is bound to the bed for several hours out of the day. Maurice's wife, Dina, injured her back while trying to help Maurice move in the bed so she is sending him to live in a skilled nursing facility until she heals, but it is not determined when he will go back to live at home or if he will remain at the facility. Maurice's main concern is that he is worried he will get bored and/or lonely if he can't go home soon.

While reading the short case study of Maurice, a few different things stood out to me: dairy farmer, cows, worried about being bored and lonely, and the fact that his intervention should be focused around trying to prolong the inevitable decline in speech, handwriting, vision, and memory due to his Parkinson's Disease. I decided to take my item (a manila folder) and make a book out of several manila folders of different activities that Maurice could do that would keep him busy as well as something he could enjoy.

Since Maurice is a retired dairy farmer and he currently leases over 80 acres of his land for dairy and cattle grazing,  I decided to center his folder around a theme that he would enjoy: cows.

 On the inside of the folder, I used another manila folder to make a pocket for storage, and I made a phone log with his family and friends so he would be able to contact them if he needed anything, or if he felt lonely and just needed to talk to someone. Since his wife raised concerns about his memory, although he recognizes familiar faces, I made sure to include a picture of each person beside their name and phone number in case there was ever any confusion.

With Parkinson's Disease, it's important to try and prolong the inevitable decline of memory loss, hand steadiness, and eye sight. Trying to think about a fun way to pass time, work on some fine motor and visual perception skills, and have fun, I created a puzzle that has Velcro attached to the back to avoid disorder of the puzzle pieces as a result of his spontaneous extremity movements and rigidity from his PD. This skill also focuses on fine motor skills.
Since he also likes to have a choice in his daily routine and his memory is declining, I thought a laminated weekly list would be perfect for him to be able to write something down on a certain day, so he would remember. This is also great for practicing his grip and handwriting.

Even though his wife stated that he consistently recognizes familiar faces, I thought it would be a good idea to get a picture of each close friend or family member and laminate them with a blank space underneath so he could write their names with a dry erase marker. This would be great for his memory as well as handwriting and grip.

Even though he is moderate to full assistance with ADLs, I'm sure that with some practice, Maurice might improve to be able to complete some ADLs independently. He takes pride in being able to do things for himself, so with practice and the absence of pressure and frustration, he can practice tying, zipping, and buttoning to hopefully improve enough to be able to complete his ADLs with minimal to no assistance.

The last page has a crossword puzzle (yep - about cows) to keep his memory sharp, and is also laminated so he can use his dry erase marker. It also includes a dot-to-dot (again - of a cow) to work on his spontaneous movements and rigidity, working memory, and visual tracking skills.

The back of the book, I chose a picture (who I would like to think is Maurice several years ago) that would not only display something he loves doing, but would hopefully make him happy.


I think the most meaningful thing I learned during this assignment was that interventions don't have to be anything extravagant. Study what the client enjoys and what makes them happy and think about their goals and go from there. I learned that even the most simple tasks can be the most difficult to create. I spent a lot of time wanting to make Maurice's folder specifically for him and tried to base everything around things that he would enjoy and that he would benefit from. I think that by completing this assignment, I will be a more creative thinker which will benefit me in the clinical field. This assignment required me to think out of the box and try to get some creative juices flowing and I was impressed with the result. It's important to be client-centered and think about not only what will help them reach their goals, but centering it around something they will enjoy and do because they want to without dreading it, and if I was Maurice, this would be my new favorite item that would constantly keep me busy :)