Letter To Mistapootsie: Why I Volunteer At The Nursing Home

Dear Mistapootsie, AKA, Corey Easterday,
Today I volunteered at the St. Joseph’s ministries in Emmitsburg. It was my third time volunteering there, therefore, the people who worked there knew me well and I didn’t have to ask what to do. The reason I am volunteering at the nursing home is because I am trying to gain more knowledge on human development by interacting with other people. At the nursing home, there are a lot of elders with dementia, hearing loss, strokes, you name it. When I helped out with bingo by moving the rack of prizes to the winners, I had to make sure I spoke loud enough even though some of the elders wore hearing aids. Not only did I have to tap them on the shoulder to let them know I was there, sometimes I would have
Osteoarthritis is when cartilage in the joints deteriorate, making bones rub against each other. People usually have arthritis in their hands, neck, back, and knees. That being said, arthritis makes you less flexible and in more pain than before. Another thing I noticed about the elders is that some of them are empty-headed sometimes. I had to help this man move his walker out of the way for him to sit. He kept putting his walker in front of his seat then turning around to sit even though his walker was in the way. And when I was giving out prizes, it felt like hours with some people when they were deciding what to pick. Because of that, sometimes you have to pick a prize out for them like, “Doesn’t this look nice? I think you should get this thing.” Maybe sometimes you have yourself repeating things to your grandma or uncle or having to explain simple things to them because they didn’t understand the first time. So when we age, our cognitive skills decrease, therefore, our speed for processing slows down, and our memory or attention isn’t as good as it used to be. Because our cognitive skills are declining, it may take longer for us to perform activities, problem solve properly, and
The elderly take a lot of medication for all different reasons, so it makes sense that they sometimes seem airheaded. Lastly, another thing I experienced today at the nursing home was an elderly woman coping with the loss of a best friend. There are very old people at the nursing home, some who are over 100 years old. Because of that, it’s not a surprise that death is common in a nursing home. It was obvious that the woman was grieving because out of nowhere she started crying. Grief is emotional suffering one experiences when they lose a loved one. There are five stages of grief and not everyone may go through every stage or go through them in order. The stages are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Everyone grieves differently and there is no right/wrong way to grieve. The woman was most likely in the stage of depression since she had a random outburst of crying. Losing a loved one can also have a riskier impact on older adults since it increase their risk of blood clots, illnesses, heart attack, etc. There is even such a thing as “broken heart syndrome” where emotional stress causes one of the chambers in the heart to swell up which causes irreversible damage then death. Now you know