How to run games in a hospital or care home

This guide is for running a game for fun inside the limits the care team sets. It does not diagnose, treat, test, or judge anyone’s condition. Staff decide whether, where, and how the session can run. You, the host, run the game and hand any care concern straight back to staff.

The group sizes and timings below are our own suggestions for a game, not clinical or care advice.

1. Ask staff who is in charge

Write down the name of the staff member who can approve the place, who takes part, timing, materials, cleaning, interruptions, and when to stop. Ask how the host should reach that person throughout the session.

Write a direct handover sentence on the host card: “I am pausing the activity and handing this to [staff role].” Use it when a participant needs help outside the agreed game support or staff instruct the host to pause.

Do not ask the group to interpret another person’s condition or vote on whether the session should continue.

2. Plan around who is there today

Use the people whom staff confirm for that session, not a previous list. Offer several ways to take part: answer, choose, arrange, read, keep the group’s score, watch, or stop. Anyone may switch between turns.

Prepare a session that works for 5 to 18 participants, then run only the part that fits the confirmed group. If fewer people attend, remove team scoring. If more people come than the room or the staff on duty can support, ask the staff member in charge to change the plan or end it.

Record no diagnosis, medication, room number, care history, or reason for a pass on the game sheet.

3. Make a few small groups of different sizes

Keep groups between 2 and 5 people. For 14 people, use groups of 2, 3, 4, and 5. Each size appears once, so no single size covers more than half the groups.

Let staff determine seating and any support arrangement. Name groups with a simple symbol, and where the size allows give each one a chooser, a first answerer, an arranger or recorder, and a checker.

Do not move a person, device, chair, or table to improve the game layout unless the responsible staff member handles or approves that change.

4. Pick a game you can pause in the middle of a turn

Use one-step choices, visible sorting, cooperative lists, matching from displayed options, or a shared sequence. Prepare each question so you can stop it without losing a long chain of hidden information.

Avoid elimination, personal memory testing, speed ranking, food, drink, touch, blindfolds, and material passed from person to person unless the staff member in charge has specifically approved it.

Keep one version ready that needs no materials: the host shows two to four choices and each group picks one in whatever way it answers.

5. Prepare materials the way the facility asks

Show staff the full list of what you plan to bring. Ask which items are allowed in, how to handle them between people, where used items go, and who checks the room afterward.

Give each group a separate counted set. Do not swap pieces between sets during play. If a piece is dropped, damaged, or moved outside the agreed area, stop using that piece and ask staff what to do.

The host follows the facility process as given. This guide supplies no substitute cleaning, infection-control, clinical, or equipment instruction.

6. Show one turn, with the choices in view

Show the steps: the host shows the question, the group chooses, the person whose turn it is answers, and the checker closes the turn. Play one turn with no points and show how to pass, change role, or stop.

Ask each group to complete the demonstration rather than asking individuals to repeat a spoken rule. If a group cannot finish the turn, cut the answer down to one choice they can point to and show it again.

Keep each round to 3 to 6 questions. After each round, offer continue, change format, watch, or finish. Do not turn the range into a quota.

7. Expect interruptions and pause calmly

If staff enter, a participant leaves, care activity begins, or the room arrangement changes, pause the question and cover or collect the materials in use. The scorer marks the round paused, not lost.

Start again only when the staff member in charge agrees. Repeat what everyone was doing and play one question with no points before scoring again. Anyone coming back joins at the next turn and loses nothing.

If two interruptions prevent the same round from restarting cleanly, end with the shared finish instead of trying the round again.

8. Take the pressure off before offering help

When a participant does not answer, offer the printed choices: repeat, show options, ask the group, pass, change role, or stop. Offer the same list to everyone and never say why someone might need it.

For an answer outside the prepared key, accept a reasonable connection in an open category. For a fact question the host cannot settle from the answer notes, drop the question. Do not ask staff to judge recreational knowledge.

Any distress, illness, care request, equipment concern, or change in condition goes to the staff member in charge. The game host does not interpret it.

9. Hand back to staff at the end

Give notice one round or two questions before the end. Finish with something the group does together, close any score, and state the completed group result without ranking individual performance.

Keep each set separate while counting it. Put used materials where staff asked and report anything missing or damaged. Ask the staff member in charge to check the room before you leave.

Write down only notes about the game: which ways of answering people chose, which game worked, unused questions, interruptions, timings, and any missing pieces. Store, share, or discard that record under the facility’s direction.

Run a 20 to 32 minute session from one card

Say first: “This is a choice activity. You may answer, point, arrange, read, keep the group record, watch, pass or stop. We will try one turn with no score. After each short round, you may continue, change, watch or finish. Staff decisions pause the game.”

A group that finishes early leaves its choice on show, picks who goes next and waits for everyone to finish. It gets no harder question. This plan does not need a winner. A tied group result stands, with no tie-breaker. For an answer outside the key, apply Step 8. Accept a reasonable link in an open question, and drop a fact question you cannot settle rather than asking staff or players to judge it.

Printable hospital or care setting checklist

• One staff member approves the place, who takes part, materials, and when to stop.
• The host knows how to reach that staff member throughout the session.
• A written handover sentence is on the host card.
• The plan uses the people staff confirmed for this session.
• Game records exclude care and health information.
• Groups stay between 2 and 5 people.
• No one group size covers more than half the groups.
• Staff control seating and support arrangements.
• The game can stop after any single step.
• A version that needs no materials is ready.
• Staff have seen the full list of materials.
• Each group has a separate counted set.
• Show, choose, answer, and close are on show.
• Each round has 3 to 6 questions.
• Continue, change, watch, and finish options are offered between rounds.
• There are written rules for finishing early and for ties.
• An interruption pauses the round; nobody loses it.
• Care concerns go straight to staff; the host does not judge them.
• Staff check the materials and the room at the end.