OOCLO Reflection 6

The Elderly Need to be Remembered, Too

Reflection on Personal Learning

 

What I Did:             

The OOCLO I took place in over the Christmas holiday was to help distribute donated Christmas presents to the elderly residents at a long-term assisted living facility.  My sister works there, and help was needed in distributing the presents, because, as with the last few years, none of the other employees wanted to take time out of their Christmas morning to be there. 

Every year, donated gifts are handed out to the residents.  The staff who were working their regularly schedule shifts that morning were quite thankful that we had come in to help with the Christmas presents.  The residents are not all coherent enough to be understanding the concept of Christmas gifts, but they appreciate the time we took to chat with them.  My sister and I went on each of the 9 floors and hung the gift bags on any closed doors, and we handed gifts directly to the residents who were awake and in their rooms. 

This experience was very emotional because the residents in the nursing home had no other visitors on Christmas morning other than my sister and me.  It was very sad to see so many forgotten family members all alone on what should be a family-oriented holiday.  From the time we were there until the time we left, which was about 4 hours, we didn’t see a single visitor for any of the residents.  I had a hard time dealing with my emotions.  Between seeing the loneliness, as well as the deteriorating mental state of some of the residents, it made for a very depressing day.  I have never been in such a facility, and I assumed that the residents were just elderly and functioning fine.  I didn’t realize they were in the condition they were.  This experience makes me sad and scared for my future state of well-being when I reach an older age. 

What Have I Been Asking Myself?

Will I still have family visiting me when I reach this age?  This made me sad because many of my friends have elderly grandparents in these types of facilities, and it makes me wonder if they visit them enough, or if they simply take having their grandparents around for granted, and don’t really visit.

               

What I Learned

I learned that groups who go and sing to, read to, or play games with the elderly are really serving a great purpose in life.  So many of the residents in these facilities have no family that visits, and they truly appreciate the time spent with them.  I learned that people like my sister are rare to find, and that I truly respect what she does for a living in helping these people.  I learned that it takes a very special kind of person to be able to emotionally handle the sadness of such a facility, and to put their own sadness behind the needs of the elderly. 

I learned this when my sister was the only off-duty employee that cared enough to come in on her day off, Christmas morning, to bring a smile to the faces of people who don’t have much to smile about anymore.  The staff really appreciated us being there, and they were thankful that someone cared enough to hand out the presents.

This learning matters because one day we will all age, and it’s important that people understand that the elderly still deserve love and company.  They can’t help that they are no longer able to care for themselves, nor can they help that they have to live in an assisted living facility. The important thing is that we cherish any time we can have with our aging family members, and help them to be happy and feel like a valued member of a family. 

In light of this learning, my husband and I plan to volunteer every year distributing Christmas presents to the elderly.  We also want to start attending a program that our church offers which organized trips to local nursing homes so people can visit, play games with, or read with elderly citizens.  I believe that it may take a while to get used to the overwhelming emotion that comes with being in such an environment, but I believe that the people would truly appreciate it, so I’m willing to try and overcome my emotions in order to improve their quality of life, and sense of well-being. 




This OOCLO focused on giving back to the community and having compassion for those around us.  We need to learn to bemore empathetic and imaging ourselves when we are older; would we be happy never having visitors or anything to look forward to? This is how the current older generations are feeling: alone.  We have the ability to change their outlook on life.  Health is very much related to psychological well-being, and if we improve their moods we may very well improve their quality of life, and even their life span.  We need to be selfless and contribute some of our free time towards making others happy.