Visits to nursing homes can make days brighter

Visits to nursing homes can make days brighter

To the Editor:

I am writing this letter today to express my concerns with visitation and volunteerism in nursing homes. I work for a local nursing home. In my 10 years of long-term care experience, I have found this to be one of the biggest problems in the nursing home environment. 

Too many times I have seen family members put into a nursing facility and basically forgotten about. The families are sometimes quick to visit at first and then, as time goes by, the visits are fewer and fewer. One of the main needs of any resident is social interaction. They need to know they haven’t been forgotten about by their loved ones and the outside world.    
                               
As your parents and grandparents, most of these people have been there for you your whole life. I’m not asking for four hours a day, but just a few minutes out of your busy day to stop in and say “Hi, I still love you and haven’t forgotten you.” This small amount of time can greatly change their quality of life and in some cases even aid in the healing process. If they think they are no longer needed in this world, sometimes they just choose to give up and then their bodies follow suit.

Even if you don’t have loved ones in a long-term care facility, you can still help out by volunteering in such a facility. Again, it doesn’t require 20 hours a week. Just an hour a couple of days a week can make a huge difference in someone’s life.

Some of the residents don’t have any family and friends who can visit, so volunteers sometimes can fill that void. Just knowing you made someone’s day a little better can be the most rewarding experience of a lifetime for you and the resident.

So many people think that the nursing home staff is there to fill the social needs of the residents, and in some cases this may be true, but the responsibility of this still lies on the families and community to which the resident belongs. Please, everyone pitch in together and make the last days of the elderly person’s life as rich and love-filled as the rest of their lives have been.

Brett Schryer
Seymour, Ind.