Does your organization provide “good care”? You give everyone two baths a week, you are below the national averages for falls and weight loss, and you rarely have a medication error.
Would you be insulted if I told you good care isn’t enough?
What separates organizations that provide “good care” for residents from those that support a life full of meaning and purpose? Relationships.
Not only relationships between those that live and work in the home, but interactions with the world beyond.
Think outside the four walls of your building or the acreage on your campus.
THE WORLD OUTSIDE
The opportunity to involve and form relationships with the outside community in your micro-community broadens everyone’s horizons in two ways:
- As a resident you are no longer limited to interacting with just your fellow residents.
- As a community member, you are enlightened to the fact that the world of aging services isn’t actually what television and newspapers lead you to believe.
But if all of your relationships only go one way, meaning you are always depending on others to help you, but you never have the opportunity to be of service to others, chances are you will feel inadequate and inferior.
Contrast that with the sense of fulfillment and accomplishment you would get if you were involved in an activity that provided a service to another person.
A sense of fulfillment and accomplishment…now that’s way beyond great care!
But how can you help residents obtain it?
Actively encourage and support involvement by residents as volunteers. At a time in their life when their world is shrinking in so many ways, involvement with outside community groups expands their footprint in the world.
IN A WORLD OF ENDLESS OPPORTUNITY
The opportunities are endless, but today I want to draw your attention to one special organization that is helping to nurture relationships between teens and women living in long term care homes: GlamourGals.
“The GlamourGals mission is to inspire and organize teen volunteers to provide ongoing companionship and complimentary beauty makeovers to women living in senior homes. We are working to build a movement of young leaders who provide a solution to elder loneliness. Our vision is to end elder loneliness through a volunteer program that engages teens in critical skill-building experiences and promotes their development as leaders in the community,” says Rachel Doyle Founder & CEO of GlamourGals.
I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Rachel to find out why and how she started GlamourGals. Click here to read her amazing story about the power of make-up!
