Elders need love too. by Miranda

Elders need love too. by Miranda - April 2022 Scholarship Essay

Hello, my name is Miranda Laurent, and a year ago I was doing volunteer work at the Bethany Center for Rehabilitation and Healing. The reason I got involved with this place was because of my grandmother, Katy Ramos, who at the time was a patient there. My grandmother had stayed there for maybe a couple of months and told me her experience there was sometimes good sometimes not so much. She told me that some of the workers there were not so nice, and she didn't really have anybody to talk to.
To relate to this, I am majoring in psychology, and I took a class called lifespan development and the number one thing that the elderly suffer with is loneliness. I was completely devastated when she had told me this, the thought of these elderly not having anyone to talk to and being locked up in their room is very heartbreaking to me. Whenever I would go to visit my grandmother, I wouldn't just visit her I would also visit the others around her. Once she had graduated from the Bethany Center for Rehabilitation and Healing and was ready to leave, I was not. I decided that this would be the perfect place for me to do my volunteer work and that way I could still be involved with this place. While doing my volunteer work there I was in charge of their activities and after the activities take them back to their room and make sure they were okay. During the bingo and other games that we had played I made sure everybody was involved and everybody felt included. Whenever I would take him back to their rooms I would also sit there and talk to them for hours.
Adding on, I met many different people and heard plenty of sad stories, many of which involved not having anyone to come and visit them. I don't think people realize how much of an impact just having a 5-minute phone call with your grandparents means to them. Many elderlies are depressed when they become very lonely or say they lose a spouse. I learned in psychology that men in a relationship usually die before their wife but if the woman dies before the man does it impacts them severely. I remember talking to a man in this rehabilitation center who was suffering with dementia and talking about how much they miss their wife and that she was coming back to see them. I had talked to one of the nurses and she explained to me that his wife had passed away years ago. That broke my heart hearing that, these people need love and someone to talk to. Doing this type of volunteer work really made me want to pursue my psychology major even more I think it is important that everybody receives social interaction and just a little dose of love each and every single day. Without social interaction in our lives, it will completely destroy us, it is important that we engage in social interaction. Participating in this type of volunteer work also gave me a one-on-one perspective with dementia and Alzheimer's for my psychology major. Now I can kind of get a picture of what it truly looks like and how bad it can get.
Overall, I truly enjoy this experience and these sweet people. Think about it if you were old and lonely wouldn’t you want someone to talk to you and show you that they care? Anytime I need to do volunteer work I will always go back to this place and even after college I will still go and check up on these people and make sure they always have someone to talk to. My grandmother passed away a year ago and she was very proud of me doing this type of volunteer work and I will also continue this for her.