Farmyard - Interactive "Fruit Picking" Mural

We feel that this scene and this activity go together like bread and butter!

The main recreation for many residents is the daily walk through the hallways in their memory care community. We are on a quest to make that walk as interesting as possible! Whenever we can, we try to incorporate a purposeful, real life activity that recalls a resident’s lived experience.

The farmyard mural with fruit picking activity recalls rural life - which for many people of a certain generation, before migration to cities, was quite common. This mural offers a “breath of fresh air”. We deliberately keep the focus above the chair rail to avoid two common problems:

1) to avoid frustration a resident may feel in believing they can enter the scene and

2) to dissuade male residents in need of bathroom facilities from “relieving themselves” in grass or shrubs below waist level. For construction workers, farmers and outdoor workers this would have been a common practice.

The fruit image is attached to a lightweight wooden block thick enough for an easy grip. Fruit attached by magnet to a wall screw. Flat profile helps residents understand that the fruit is not suitable to eat!

Signs indicate that fruit can be picked and placed in the corresponding basket.

Passing staff can replace fruit onto the tree (or this task can be performed by residents as a “fine motor exercise” with or without a recreational therapist/activity program staff member.)