Simple things can make all the difference in the life of nursing home residents.

I just read an inspiring article from the New York Times about nursing homes.

Now I’ve been to plenty of nursing homes, church-going Southern girl that I am.  I went to church services and played the piano, and played the piano and sang just to cheer people up, and I visited my family when they went in.  I wasn’t ever truly “scared” of nursing homes.  I can’t remember not knowing what one was and knowing someone that was in one.  But, I always knew they weren’t a place I’d ever want to go.

They have an odd smell about them, like hospitals.  Old people, medicine, bleach and Lysol.  The food is often terrible.  The institutionalized slop that we get in our schools, prisons and other government-run facilities.  Many patients’ situations are depressing.  I and a few of my friends went to sing Christmas carols to people in one home, and there was a pitiful woman strapped down in her chair (if they let her go, she ran off).  While we sang, she forgot her troubles for a while, but before we started and again before we left, she asked us, begging and crying, if we could please contact her husband and get him to get her out of there (he had died years ago).  My step-grandmother suffered from Alzheimer’s, and would often not remember my grandpa, saying “some old man” was in her bed.  But she still would remark at dinner: “Oh my, I hope I never get Alzheimer’s.  It’s such a sad thing, to forget everyone you know”.

One thing that bothered me the most was the boredom they must feel!  My piano playing was a highlight of the week or month.  Otherwise it was TV, meals, getting your hair done, and maybe some arts and crafts once a week.  They did have books, and sometimes people would have someone read to them.  But god, it must have been boring!  But for those folks, growing up in the early 20th century, those entertainments are about all they were used to.  What will people have for us when I get old?  I hope we have an Internet lounge, Wii games, movie nights, etc.

This article is about medical students who are experiencing nursing homes first hand.  They are healthy, but they impair themselves (it says one guy put Vaseline on his glasses so he couldn’t see well and plugged his ears to simulate deafness.  One girl went around in a wheelchair) and live as a regular resident.  They then give feedback on things that should be improved.  The experience must be eye-opening.

You can read the full article here

Photo by bjwebbiz on morguefile.com