Help Nursing Home Residents Enjoy the Holidays

When the hustle and bustle of the holidays is fast approaching, it is important to remember our loved ones who are in area nursing homes. This can be a depressing time for them. They are separated from the normal routine and for many of them, this may be their first time away from home during the holidays. Family members should realize the importance of reaching out to their family and friends living in nursing homes.

Try to include your residents in the holiday festivities in some way. Investing in your loved one can be key to a happier holiday for both you and your loved one. Here are some ideas:


Visit Often
Visits from family and friends are always welcomed around the holidays. It can help their day go a little faster and make it a little more special because of the visit from you.
Many treasure visits with children and grandchildren as well. Children, adequately chaperoned, can be a real source of enjoyment and happiness for an older adult. 

Taking a loved one home, if possible, while you are preparing for the holiday festivities, will make them feel they are still a part of the celebration. They can smell the cookies in the oven, watch the "hustle and bustle" in kitchen, see the lights on the Christmas tree or participate in the lighting of the Menorah. Another plus is that once you have them home, their enthusiasm is contagious!

And don’t rule out visits from pets as well. Many nursing home residents love to have visits from pets. Quite a few nursing homes have volunteers certified to do friendly pet visits. If this is the case, request a furry visitor the next time they come into the facility.

Spirituality and the Holidays
Getting your loved one in touch with their spirituality during the holidays can be especially helpful as
well. The holidays are a time when many older adults reminisce of days gone by. While this is usually a pleasant experience, it can be a little sad because of the many losses we experience by the time we are older adults. A resident’s spirituality can be a comfort and a source of strength for them during the holiday season. Getting your loved one in touch with a counselor or person from the clergy can be helpful in addressing the loneliness and spiritual concerns that they may have in their lives. Most nursing homes are good at having an area priest or pastor available to visit with residents. Speaking with the nursing home social worker or administrator and setting up a visit for your loved one can be a source of personal strength and encouragement for them during the holidays.

The Importance of Involvement
Try to get your loved one involved in a project that allows them to reach out to someone else. Most residents love to be productive and involved in other people’s lives. You never lose the urge to make a difference to someone less fortunate than yourself. There are all types of projects that older adults can get involved in.

• Making holiday cards is one activity that does not require a lot of energy and can be done at a resident’s leisure, when they are feeling up to it. They can either make cards for their friends and family or they can make cards for other people in the community who could use a friendly reminder that they are being thought of.

• Create a "Holiday Diary" with the assistance of a family member or friend. Have the resident document a holiday remembrance so that it can be saved as a keepsake. For this project, the loved one recalls a special holiday memory, a story, a gift received and/ or given or special holiday song that meant so much to him or her. The resident can have a diary entry for each of the Twelve Days of Christmas, or the Eight Days of Hanukkah. This is a great way to find out about holiday traditions and special times that happened long ago. Keeping a written journal of these special moments can be a treasure in years to come.

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Bonnie Camp, a certified volunteer advocate with the Office of the Ombudsman for the Institutionalized Elderly and a hospice volunteer, received her MSW and Gerontology Certificate in 2011 from Rutgers University School of Social Work. She graduated from Stockton State College with a Bachelor’s degree in social work and minors in gerontology and writing. She is currently employed as a nephrology social worker with South Jersey Healthcare at dialysis units in Bridgeton and Millville.

LTC providers urged to utilize clinical assessment and intervention offered by S-COPE (1-855-718-2699)

In September, Ombudsman McCracken wrote a letter to all long-term care communities encouraging them to utilize the Statewide Clinical Outreach Program for the Elderly (S-COPE), a program developed by the NJ Division of Mental Health and Addiction Services (under the NJ Department of Human Services) and implemented by Trinitas Hospital.  S-COPE is a program that has been designed specifically to provide specialized clinical consultation, assessment and intervention for older adults who have primary diagnoses of dementia with behavioral disturbances, and who are at risk of psychiatric hospitalization.

Its purpose is two-fold: to provide individual resident assessment before these situations reach a crisis point, and to provide education for facility staff to better handle these situations in the future.  S-COPE representatives are available to provide assistance to LTC providers 24 hours a day, seven days a week, including holidays.

The Office of the Ombudsman for the Institutionalized Elderly (OOIE) fields many cases where elderly residents with dementia and/or mental illness have behavioral problems.  Often we find that interventions could have occurred much earlier to minimize the serious disruption caused to the elderly resident, other residents of the facility, and facility staff.

S-COPE can be reached at 1-855-718-2699.