Remembering Our Seniors

Very few of us have as much time as we would like to spend doing the activities that mean the most to us. My own fantasies regarding available spare time always include making regular visits to local nursing homes, to contribute the most basic of gifts - time and caring.

Nursing homes (skilled nursing facilities) are increasingly filled with seniors who are often disenfranchised. They are frequently virtual prisoners in their semi-private or multi-bed rooms, especially when there are no family members or others in the vicinity to visit or take them on day or weekend trips. Most respectable nursing homes provide activities for the residents, ranging from crafts to exercise or dancing. In spite of those alternatives, however, seniors often opt out of activities and wind up spending endless hours alone.

Having spent considerable time both professionally and personally in these centers, I am always inspired and moved by their residents. Seniors are much like children in various ways. Their needs are simple and easily expressed. Their attention spans are often short, their patience limited and their ability to grasp complex situations sometimes compromised. In those cases where decreased mental capacity creates frightening and unsettling states of mind, residents are often alienated or bewildered.

There are numerous ways to help. Use your skills or strengths in the areas where they will accomplish the greatest good. Drop by a nursing home with any unused or excess reading material. Magazines and books are always welcome. If you belong to a musical organization, choral or instrumental, arrange a concert for the residents. You will find them a receptive and grateful audience, regardless of the type of music performed.

Call the programs chairperson at your local nursing home and find out what types of programs are already in place and which ones need volunteers. See if you can help out with a bingo, poker or bridge session. Donate and show unwanted movies. Very often, help is greatly appreciated to serve snacks, read books or just sit and listen to what our seniors have to say.

The smallest of donations are always valued. The feelings derived cannot be adequately expressed here, ranging from joy to making someone's life a little fuller to the gratifying feeling of helping someone to help others. Our oldest citizens are often the first to be forgotten even though they have frequently made the most formidable contributions to our world. Give an hour or two a week and see what a beautiful sense of peace you derive from the process.