Community Service By Older Adults Living in Nursing Homes, Assisted Living

Lettie Miller Frye, an assisted living resident of Greenfield makes quilts to raise funds for the Edinburg Volunteer Fire Department. Photo by Rich Cooley/Northern Virginia Daily News

When I was writing my book Becoming Dead Right: A Hospice Volunteer in Urban Nursing Homes, I created a chapter about a nursing home called Baby Boomer Haven based on best practices of various nursing homes, but not nearly enough, around America. This imaginary nursing home includes older adults performing community service. In this book excerpt, Ruth, a wheelchair –riding resident, takes readers on a tour and explains some of the service activities they perform:

“At Baby Boomer Heaven, I mean Haven, we emphasize win-win community service. We’ve learned that when we join with the community and put all of our notes together, we create some fine songs. Of course, we appreciate service from others, but we want to serve people, too. We want to feel like we are doing our part to make the world a better place now and for future generations.

Our gift shop sells crafts we make to help fund service projects.  Among several services we provide, residents help Fetching Feasts provide meals delivered to seniors at their homes. We perform tasks here that make the process easier for them. We sew blankets for newborns. We often tutor and read to children at our childcare center."

Ruth goes on to explain other service activities in which residents demonstrate their reciprocal partnership with the local community. Do you have community service activities to share about residents in older adult communities?

If you would like to know more about positive and negative aspects of nursing home life and how families can transition loved ones to long-term care facilities, Jonathan Rosenfeld, writer of Nursing Homes Abuse Blog recommends ten helpful resources there that can assist you.

Frances Shani Parker, Author

Becoming Dead Right: A Hospice Volunteer in Urban Nursing Homes is available in paperback at many booksellers and in e-book form at Amazon and Barnes and Noble booksellers.

Happy Birthday to Hospice and Nursing Homes Blog (Video: .29)

Five years ago in January 2007, I decided to commit to writing Hospice and Nursing Homes Blog. Anybody who’s ever written a blog for years knows “commit” is the only word to use here, especially if you're the only writer. Cyberspace is a humongous place, but I firmly believe one person can make a positive difference.

Why do I blog? I want to promote more interest in hospice and palliative care, share my personal journey and insights as a hospice volunteer, increase person-centered nursing homes, and improve eldercare and quality of life for older adults in general. There are various ways to achieve this, and blogging is one of mine. Using stories, poems, news, research, interviews, photos, and videos, I  present universal information that includes the often-missing voices of people of color and concerns of urban areas.

The years keep ending and beginning, and now it's 2012. I can hardly believe it's been five years. Blogging is a challenging, rewarding, and service-oriented activity for me. It's given me the opportunity to meet and exchange ideas with interesting and diverse people all over the world. 

Thank you to all my wonderful readers for your support during my five years of blogging Hospice and Nursing Homes Blog. Commemorating this milestone with song are older adults DameEdithDivine and HerHandyman whistling “Happy Birthday to You!”

Healthcare blogs like mine and healthcare websites can be persuasive. They are used by many to impact the thoughts and actions of others. Is one more persuasive than the other? Here’s what the research says: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/health-blogs-vs-websites-frances-shani-parker?trk=mp-reader-card

Frances Shani Parker, Author

Becoming Dead Right: A Hospice Volunteer in Urban Nursing Homes is available in paperback at many booksellers and in e-book form at Amazon and Barnes and Noble booksellers.
Hospice and Nursing Homes Blog

Homeless Older Adults: Geriatric Problems and Hospice Care (Research, Video 5:15)

Living in a large urban city, I see homeless people a lot. At one point, the public school where I was principal had more homeless students than any school in Michigan. Having interacted with homeless people at various age levels, I often wonder about their life stories. Of particular concern are older adults who have been homeless for many years. What brought them to this condition?  What’s really going on with them physically, mentally, and emotionally? What happens to those living in shelters and on the streets when they are actively dying?

The average age of America’s homeless population continues to increase along with the geriatric syndromes many of them have. Research is important to understand and improve the plight of homeless older adults. With this in mind, researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center studied two hundred forty-seven homeless adults aged 50-69 who were recruited from eight homeless shelters in Boston, MA. Their goal was to determine the prevalence of common geriatric syndromes of older adult homeless. Among their key findings are these percentages involving research participants:

1. Difficulty in performing at least one activity of daily living was reported in 30%.

2. Cognitive impairment was present in 24.3%.

3. Impaired executive function was present in 28.3%.

4. Criteria for frailty were met by 16%.

5. Major depression was present in 39.8%.

6. Self-reported hearing and visual impairment was present among 29.7% and 30.0% of subjects.

7. Urinary incontinence was reported by 49.8%.

In summary, homeless older adults were more likely to have functional impairment, frailty, depression, visual impairment, and urinary incontinence compared to three population-based cohorts of older persons. Geriatric problems that are potentially treatable are common in older homeless adults and are experienced at higher rates than in the general older population

If homeless people are living ill on the streets, they are also dying on the streets. What can be done to help homeless older adults in need of hospice care? Alpha Project for the Homeless has launched one of the only Hospices for the Homeless programs in the country. Living with Dignity, a program inspired by Kyla Winters, is located in San Diego, California. This video describes how hospice care supports the homeless.

Frances Shani Parker, Author

Becoming Dead Right: A Hospice Volunteer in Urban Nursing Homes is available in paperback at many booksellers and in e-book form at Amazon and Barnes and Noble booksellers.

Hospice and Nursing Homes Blog

When Older Adults, Seniors Want to Die (Hospice Nursing Home Story, Research)

Some people think being around dying patients must always be sad because everybody fears death, and no one really wants to die. As a hospice volunteer, I have had several patients who could prove them wrong. These nursing home residents actually stated they looked forward to death and gave reasons that had nothing to do with depression. This is what hospice patient Rose said to me about her upcoming death:

“How old did you tell me I was?” Rose asked.

“You’re ninety-nine, and you’ll be a hundred years old on your next birthday.”

“A hundred years old is too old. I don’t think I want to be that old.”

“There are three other ladies in this nursing home who are older than that. One is a hundred three. We talked to her last week during your wheelchair ride.”

“How much longer will it be before I make a hundred? I don’t know if I want to wait too much longer.”

“It’s only one more month. I remember you said you had spiritual talks with your minister. If you decide to wait, I’ll get you a big balloon that looks like a birthday cake.”

“I guess I could wait. Yes, I think I will wait. That way I can celebrate my hundredth birthday. When I do get to heaven, I can tell everybody I lived to be one hundred.”

And that’s exactly what she did.

(Excerpt from Becoming Dead Right: A Hospice Volunteer in Urban Nursing Homes)

But wanting to die is not always that simple. According to this VU University Medical Center research study in Amsterdam about older adults’ death thoughts and wishes, 81.3% never had them. Among those who did, 67% had depressive symptoms, and 20% suffered from a depressive disorder. Wanting to die was associated with depressive symptoms, a depressive disorder, lower perceived mastery, financial problems, loneliness, small network, involuntary urine loss, being divorced, and having a speech impediment.

What can we learn from this research? Certain situations increase the likelihood that an older person wants to die. Although the desire to die may not be related to depressive symptoms, depression should be cause for investigation about death wishes and should be treated.

Frances Shani Parker, Author

Becoming Dead Right: A Hospice Volunteer in Urban Nursing Homes is available in paperback at many booksellers and in e-book form at Amazon and Barnes and Noble booksellers.

Hospice and Nursing Homes Blog

Burnout Compassion Fatigue: Health Care, Law Enforcement, Other Service Professions (Video 4:20)

Compassion fatigue is a form of burnout experienced in many service professions such as health care and law enforcement. It results from empathizing too much with another person’s pain. Without realizing it, professional and personal relationships may become entwined. Compassion fatigue can cause painful physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual exhaustion. Resentment may build toward the person receiving care. Substance abuse might be used as an escape from the exhaustion of caring too much.

Healthcare workers and others in service professions should monitor their behavior and feelings for signs of compassion fatigue. Treatment often includes counseling and the development of coping strategies.

This video titled Compassion Fatigue: The Stress of Caring Too Much describes compassion fatigue as explained by workers in the mental health, hospice, and law enforcement professions.

Frances Shani Parker, Author

Becoming Dead Right: A Hospice Volunteer in Urban Nursing Homes is available in paperback at many booksellers and in e-book form at Amazon and Barnes and Noble booksellers.

Hospice and Nursing Homes Blog