I found this article, actually it’s a letter to the editor…from an Activity Assistant seeking volunteers for her nursing home. There is a lot of very potent reminders here, that every CNA should remember.

“Being left alone is one of the facts of aging,” according to Dr. Robert Butler, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and founding director of the National Institute on Aging. “Data suggests people actually die of a broken heart, become sick because of it.”

Just as science has shown the positive effects of human stimuli — especially the sense of touch — on the physical and emotional development of newborn babies, it is natural to think the elderly, too, thrive best when placed in surroundings where sensory stimulation and one-to-one human contact are plentiful.

As a nursing home assistant activity director, I spend most my time facilitating floor and table-top games, exercise and special art and music activity, trying to minimize the isolation of my 100 residents, most of whom are wheelchair restricted.

But my co-worker and I can only do so much. We can provide spurts of fun, crafting theme parties, refereeing balloon volleyball games, holding horseshoes contests and conducting a simple cooking class or supervising trivia time, but it’s the countless idle hours that cry out for human involvement from the community at large.

Regardless of whether you are seven or 77, your presence in a nursing home is vital. Nothing fancy, nothing long-winded. Just being there, in the flesh, getting to know individual residents as people with needs (namely, social) similar to the rest of us.

I think nursing homes should have a HUGE volunteer program…for the residents. And it shouldn’t be restrained by time of day or as an activity program. Volunteers can serve many roles…most importantly just being a companion. The need for human touch and 1:1 conversation and friendship should never be confined to a room where activities occur. Or on a shift when the activity staff are working. What types of programs does your nursing home offer in regards to volunteers?