Page M12 September 26, 1990. This Week

PRIME TIME

Participation necessary component of life -

here are many

people in auxiliary

hospitals and

nursing homes
who are bored and lonely.
They miss their home and
friends and feel that they
have been “put away,”
their usefulness, their con-
tribution to life, at an end.
It is no wonder that some
of them just give up. Man
functions best in a goal-
Striving environment,
needing to participate in
life, in this sense is a very
necessary component of
our daily living. Remove
this factor, and there is

very little left.
Psychologists inform us that
the bad behavior of a child is an

attention getting devise. So, too,
are many of the complaints of
the elderly, although seemingly
real enough to the person af-
flicted. Alone, devoid of com-
panionship of family and
warmth of home life, they learn
quickly that when they com-
plain, they are at least listened
to. And so, for a short time they
have an audience. Very few of us
will be lucky enough to be put
out to pasture in a place where

we have lived all our lives. It is
far more likely that it will be
somewhere far from family,
where we have gone to spend our
retirement years.

I remember one such old lady.
She had given up, said no one
cared. She refused to make any
effort toward personal cleanli-
ness; she rebelled at being
bathed, and resented every-
thing we did for her. It was not

e SEABED GEOLOGIC
HAZARDS

e CHARTMAKING IN
THE COMPUTER
WORLD

e STUDYING THE
OCEAN FOOD
CHAIN

e SOUNDS OF THE
SEA

e ENVIRONMENTAL
IMPACT ASSESS-
MENT-DATA TO
DECISIONS

e TOUR OF
HYDROCARBON
LAB

e HIGH SEAS
DRIFTNETS AND
MARINE DEBRIS

9:00-4:00
9:00-4:00

SEPT. 25-27
SEPT. 28-30

COORDINATOR: SHERRI WILLIS

hd | Fisheries Péches
and Oceans et Océans

Energy, Mines and Energie, Mines et
Rese Canada Ressources Canada

Institute of Ocean Sciences

OPEN HOUSE

September 25-30, 1990

SEE HOW OCEAN RESEARCH CONTRIBUTES
TO OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE ENVIRONMENT
EARTHQUAKES © GLOBAL WARMING * OCEAN FOOD CHAIN
OILSPILLS * POLLUTION * SAFE NAVIGATION * TSUNAMIS

EXHIBITS AND INTERACTIVE DISPLAYS INCLUDE:

PLUS COMPLIMENTARY DRAW September 28-30
for Cruising Atlas, Oceanography on the B.C. Coast

and more!

ee

SCHOOLS AND GROUP TOURS MUST BE BOOKED IN ADVANCE
TELEPHONE: (604) 356-6348
———————————————————————————>=

9860 West Saanich Road, Sidney, B.C., Canada, V8L 4B2

HOW OCEANS
CONTROL ATMOS-
PHERIC CO,

SEISMOGRAPHS

USING SATELLITES
TO STUDY THE
OCEAN

OILSPILL-CON-
TAMINANT DRIFT
PROJECTION

PLANKTON AND
THE GREENHOUSE
EFFECT

RESEARCH.
VESSELS R.B.
YOUNG, J.P. TULLY

SEAFLOOR VOL-
CANIC RICHES

SCHOOLS & GROUP TOURS
GENERAL PUBLIC

FAX: (604) 356-6323

Boo

Canada

=Goldenrod=

By IVY KENT

that she wasn’t capable of doing
things for herself, but the will to
do them wasn’t there.

She vented her feelings of
rejection and bitterness on us,
and on the few family members
who did make an effort to visit
her. And so they stopped coming.

Working in the hospital I
found I was really surprised at
how few patients had regular
visitors. This was a small
auxiliary hospital in a rural
area, and I thought surely these
people must have friends out
there. And I realized too, that
the ones who did have regular

visitors were patients with a
positive outlook on life.

And something else ... we could
always tell when the Old Age
Security cheques came. People
would wait until almost bank
time, then they would rush in,
get the required signature from
their old one, and hurry off im-
mediately so they could “catch
the bank before it closed.” We
thought this a particularly in-
humane form of visit, but one
which was repeated with
regularity.

One year, our hospital received
a small windfall. With it, we set
up a crafts program. With care-
ful spending, and the help of our
hospital auxiliary, we soon had
everything ready.

All we needed was patient par-
ticipation. This was a little har-
der, so at first it was something
less than a success. The patients
had to be coaxed and bullied out
of their lethargy: At first only a
few responded but we per-
severed, and in the end
managed to achieve almost total
involvement. The change of at-
titude didn’t come suddenly, but
it did come. Communication im-

proved between patients and
they became warmer and
friendlier with the staff.

This was a treat for us. No
longer were we the “ogres” who
made them bathe and comp
their hair...suddenly they were
doing these things for themsel-
ves. Some of the ladies even
began asking to have their hair
set so they would look nice for
“crafts.” Z

Only someone who had wit-
nessed this transformation can
explain the warmth it inspires.
Social teas and planned enter-
tainment are well intended, but
at best demand passive par-
ticipation. People in extended
care need active participation.
They need to feel their useful-
ness is not at an end. They like
all the rest of us, still need to feel
the satisfaction of a job well
done.

And an interesting side effect
was the increase in family visits.

Se

Now the old one has something f§

to “show and tell” and so was
able to become a participant in
the visit, no longer just the
recipient.

It was a whole new ball game.

ADMIRING THE FLOWERS, Fairfield resident Dorothy Hayman takes in some of the 650 entries
in the Victoria Horticultural Society’s annual juried exhibition.

PHOTO BY CHUCK RUSSELL