Loneliness Archives ⋆ Page 2 of 2 ⋆ Cathy Cress

How Do 3 Innovative Programs Transform Loneliness and Isolation in Seniors?

April 9, 2019

Homebound seniors are miserable in their isolation and loneliness, with a devastating emotional quality of life. AARP has estimated the there are 19.6 million in the US. This can be deadly to their quality of life and their own life since loneliness and isolation equal smoking 15 cigarettes a day. There is an answer like Virtual Senior Centers. The 3 game-changing ideas below, magically allow older people, who cannot get out, use technology, a phone, museums or care managers to enhance their emotional and physical quality of life. These are brilliant game-changing.programs.

Senior Centers Without Walls has been around since 2004. Each week, seniors can access over 70 groups by phone or online, all from the comfort of home. Nancy Lynn Jarvis a mystery writer living in Santa Cruz reads each of her mysteries, as they are published live on the telephone to an entire group of homebound seniors in the San Francisco Bay area. Their winter catalog shows you the breadth of fun and games the isolated seniors can find- enhancing the emotional quality of life.

The Virtual Senior Center in New York really opens up the world for homebound seniors enhancing their emotional quality of life. It also elevates the quality of life of the caregiver because it gives them a respite and the comfort that their loved one is experiencing a program that offers joy- the joy that comes from joining a community, making new friends and learning new things you choose to be part of, an amazing benefit for homebound seniors.

Self Help, a remarkable senior agency for Hollocast victims in New York City, put an extraordinary Virtual Senior Center together by partnering with Microsoft. They have grown since their beginning to spread to many other cities. Classes are led by a volunteer, like an opera class lead volunteers from an NYC opera company-.

One of the participants talks about the sense of community they feel, Marie says. “When we see each other, we say, ‘how are you?’ And if someone is missing you wonder if he or she is sick and you find out. We have a nurse who is knowledgeable and whom you can ask health questions when you see her in the class. She connects us with information she’s learned from the Mayo Clinic.”

The Virtual Senior Center really not only opens up the world for homebound senior but enhances their emotional and intellectual quality of life and downright joy in every day

We’re Still Here an art exhibit that opened this week in Santa Cruz California. It addresses the plight of lonely and isolated seniors through art doing community organizing by allowing the 70,000 visitors expected in its run from April to September. Visitors can pick cards to offer one lonely senior a visit, a ride, a chance to interact with another person. This exhibit will travel counties throughout California through other art museums, spreading the message that lonely isolated seniors need help- through the message of art. The exhibit was spearheaded by Nina Simon who is now world famous museum director and author who builds and teaches community driven museums.

If you are a geriatric care manager think of adding a personal assistant program that can enhance not just quality of care but the joy you give through the quality of life care check out Handbook of Geriatric Care Management with an entire chapter on adding quality of Life

What Are the 7 Steps to Spiritual Assessment for Elders

April 2, 2019

Spirituality Means More As We Age

Spirituality can matter more as you age. Now that we are entering a season of high spiritual celebrations like Easter- this is an important ritual to involve elders in spiritual communities. Religious communities offer elders socialization thus increasing their quality of life and returning joy to their lives.

What is This all About?

Leonie Nowitz, a geriatric care manager who has a deep interest in spirituality and writes about it often, once told me to look at spirituality as a question ” What is this all about”. As we age, this question becomes primal, for we face death coming at a rapid pace. Elders wonder- do I go to heaven, to hell, or just energy or dust. Will I meet angels- my wife in heaven.?

Ms. Nowitz said that when you define religion, look at it as a filing cabinet with each drawer is a religion with an answer to spirituality ” “What Is this all About”. There is one for Jews, Protestants, Hindu’s Muslims, Quakers, The Environment- all religions and belief systems.

Spiritual Quality Of Life Assessment

One assessment care managers can do is a spiritual quality of life assessment to find out where joy can be found again. If spirituality is something that would increase an elders quality of life, here are some activities that you may suggest to an older client or their family, especially on holidays when places of worship have their most spectacular music, smells, and bells and pageantry.

Spiritual Quality of Life Activities

If an older person appears isolated and is unable to attend their place a worship, especially on holidays, because of not driving or disability and they wish to still join a congregation, contact the head of the religious group and ask if members could transport him or if they have a van service or arrange for members to transport them to services. If they cannot get out ask if the spiritual leader or congregation members would make home visits.
If an older person is not now a part of a religious group but what once was and has some interest in returning, holidays are the best times to reconnect. Contact the head of the religious group and ask him/her to make a home visit and the care manager follow-up with transportation arrangements if yes.
If an older client has had a recent close relative or friend die and wishes to return to a spiritual group she knew before, connect them, with the congregation they are familiar with for solace or grieving.
If an older person moves to a new area and is part of a religious group connect them to the same religion and place of worship in the new town and arrange transportation and a new member to greet them
If an older person has dementia if possible reconnect him her with his spiritual background through familiar prayer, music, etc.
If an elder has dementia and can attend services without being disruptive, arrange for a caregiver to take them as they can still be drawn in by the ” Smells and Bells’
If you have a homebound client who wishes to return to a religious group, reconnect them by arranging, in their, spiritual music, religious icons (a rosary or image, for example), readings from a sacred text, watching a service on television, listening to one on the radio or via computer

Isolation and Loneliness in Seniors = 15 Cigarettes a Day

March 18, 2019

The AARP Foundation’s Connect2Affect has called social isolation a “growing health epidemic” among older adults. It equates the health risks of prolonged isolation with smoking 15 cigarettes daily. Adding a Quality of Life Program to a geriatric care management practice can help serve independent seniors who do not need hands-on care but do need more community and a way to help themselves overcome loneliness and social isolation.

In recent study loneliness in seniors between the ages of 65 and 86 led to a 64 percent increase in the risk of developing dementia, an extraordinary spike in odds highlighting the importance of fostering meaningful relationships at all stages of life. Helping seniors, through a quality of life services, find new human connections and community, can give an older person a greater sense of happiness and joy. But as this study shows critically- better health.

Quality of Life of the older client can be important to the older person’s family. If the family is involved, which it often is, even if the senior is living alone, the care manager can assist families by beginning the dialogue to open discussions on preferences and values of the older client and the family. What would give the older person joy in their life? Would it be art, music m going to baseball games, being in a knitting group, having a tea for friends at their home, volunteering with a group?

Quality of Life issues that the care manager should assess is the individual’s need for social interaction or privacy; the value of family; proximity to cultural stimulation; and adaptability to change. These are just some of the many quality of life considerations.

A Care Management Agency can even develop a Quality of Life programs. Lifespan Care Management in Santa Cruz, Ca just developed a Quality of life program Well Being designed to bring back the joy in lonely elders lives by assessing just what would do that and taking and engaging them in the activity with skilled personal assistants with training in recreational therapy. In the body and mind connection, this to heal the mind.

Sage Eldercare in Northern California has developed a unique activity kit called Joyful Moments that helps family members, care managers, and caregivers. Joyful Moments, unique activity cards that give “the tools to re-engage older adults in life—and turn every visit from mundane to memory making. Nina Herndon the director of Sage Eldercare is also an expert in quality of life for seniors and authored a chapter on how care managers can develop that skills with seniors Handbook of Geriatric Care Management

Care Managers can be so valuable in not only helping a senior create a path out of loneliness and isolation by assisting in removing barriers to quality of life that family members may, out of care and worry, put in the elder’s way.

Find out more about creating a Quality of Life program

Loneliness& Isolation in Seniors =Health Risk of Smoking 15 Cigarettes a Day

March 3, 2018

In a recent study loneliness in seniors between the ages of 65 and 86 led to a 64 percent increase in the risk of developing dementia, an extraordinary spike in odds highlighting the importance of fostering meaningful relationships at all stages of life. Helping seniors, through a quality of life services, find new human connections and community, can give an older person a greater sense of happiness and joy. But as this study shows critically- better health.

Quality of Life of the older client can be important to the older person’s family. If the family is involved, which it often is, even if the senior is living alone, the care manager can assist families by beginning the dialogue to open discussions on preferences and values of the older client and the family. What would give the older person joy in their life? Would it be art, going to baseball games, being in a knitting group, having a tea for friends at their home, volunteering with a group?

A Care Management Agency can even develop a Quality of Life programs. Sage Eldercare in Northern California has developed a unique activity kit called Joyful Moments that helps family members, care managers, and caregivers. Joyful Moments, unique activity cards that give “the tools to re-engage older adults in life—and turn every visit from mundane to memory making. Nina Herndon the director of Sage Eldercare is also an expert in quality of life for seniors and authored a chapter on how care managers can develop that skills with seniors Handbook of Geriatric Care Management

Choice is important with seniors When values and preferences differ between elders individuals, in the family, it is important to identify how the differences may impact all involved in the process. What if the older person wants an electric scooter so she can shop at Safeway, the store she has used since she was a young mother and wife? At the same time what if the adult son or daughter will only shop at organic, health food markets and wants her mother to shop there. On top of that, the daughter feels the electric scooter is unsafe and the aging mother feels she is safe. How do you solve this quality of life dilemma?

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