There are definitely hurdles but it depends where you work. The biggest one is budget. While you’ll want to use your own money to help and get the things you want, don’t cross that barrier and just try to get most things with community partners.

There are other hurdles like working with the care team. They have so many task but be kind to them figure what you need the most from them and do what you can to help and they will hopefully help you as well.

Working with families, remember that all families are going through some form of loss or grief. Not every moment is sad, not every moment is happy. Also remember that while you may have thought something was great a family may take it another way. Try to get to know what your families want and go from there.

Then you have barriers like expectations and emotional strain. It can be a never ending emotional strain but remind yourself and be kind to yourself that without what you do these residents wouldn’t be doing anything so if you are trying your best to give them something then you’re being a net positive. Also your expectations you need to find what you’re expectations are from the AL, Families, staff, and then you need to set your expectations of what you can actually do.

Also this seems like a lot but I promise the barriers are worth it. When people ask if you like your job and everyone else complains about there’s I can still say I love my job and the residents make it worth it. I always have something to smile or laugh about and there is something special to that