Brighten a senior citizen's day!

Imagine you were stuck in bed at home with a broken leg. You couldn’t go out with your friends the other night because you couldn’t walk, and you’ve been home from school for three days now. By that time you’re probably pretty bored, and maybe even lonely. Now imagine if your best friend came to visit – it would be pretty awesome, and you would probably feel MUCH better.

Senior citizens in nursing homes often can’t go out on their own, and sometimes they don’t have many friends or family living near them to come visit them often. However, in most nursing homes, volunteers can come and spend some time with a senior citizen every now and then and totally make their day.

Here’s how you can do it:

Step 1

Contact nursing homes in your area. Ask them if they allow volunteers to spend time with the seniors. Make sure to ask if there are any requirements, like age, for example. If not, check out our page on [other ways to help seniors].

Step 2

Get the details. Ask the nursing home what they would like of you as a volunteer. Some questions you might want to ask may include:

• How many days a week would they like you to come in?
• How many hours should you stay?
• What will you do with the people you visit?
• Is there a training session before starting?

Step 3

Set up a schedule. After discussing with the nursing home how many days/hours to commit, sit down and figure out what days you are free. Obviously, you don’t want to plan to go in when you’re in school. After-school and weekends are probably best.

Step 4

Do a little research. Even if they do have a training session before you go in, you might want to learn a little about seniors so you can be more sympathetic and will know what to say to and how to act around them. Death is an obvious topic that you would want to avoid. Figure out what else might be sensitive subjects.

Step 5

Start volunteering! See if you can bring in a book, movie, or game to play with the person you are visiting. If you visit the same person each time you go in, try to remember what they say they like and dislike. If one day they tell you how much they love checkers, and next time you come and bring in a board, they’ll see even more just how thoughtful and considerate (and just plain awesome) you are.

Fact 1

About 30.8% (10.7 million) of older non-institutionalized (not in prison, hospitalized, etc.) lived in nursing homes. 7.9 million were women.

Fact 2

Half of the number of women over the age of 75 live alone.

Fact 3

18.2% of people ages 85 and older live in nursing homes.

Fact 4

In 2005, 10.1% of people over the age of 65 were living in poverty. That’s about 3,603,000 people.

Fact 5

In the late 1960’s and early 1970’s over 20% of people age 65 and older lived in poverty.

Fact 6

In 2005, life expectancy for women was 79.5 years, and men 74.1 years.

Fact 7

Elderly women are three times more likely to be widowed than elderly men. Therefore, women often don’t have a spouse to take care of them when they are older.

Fact 8

In 1993, 8 in 10 non-institutionalized elderly people who lived alone were women.

Fact 9

The leading causes of death for elderly people (over 65 years old) are heart disease, cancer, and stroke. Other major causes include lower respiratory disease, influenza, pneumonia, and diabetes, and Alzheimer’s disease.

Fact 10

Depression effects about 15% of elderly people in community-living situations. About 25% of seniors living in nursing homes suffer from depression.

Fact 11

In 1997, 41.8% of men and 47.5% of women age 65 to 69 needed help with everyday activities. For people over 80, that percentage jumped to 68.2% for men and 76.7% for women.

Fact 12

In 1999, 116,500 men over the age of 85 were living in nursing homes. The number for women was 210,500.

Sources:

Fact 1-3: Administration on Aging www.aoa.gov

Facts 4-12, and health care graph: U.S. Census Bureau – www.census.gov