When I heard about the Halloween party at the long term care facility, I assumed that the patients were going to be somewhat distant, however lucid.  I was mistaken.  Upon arriving, we watched the patients and many were either sleeping, or staring off into space.  In fact, most seemed to not even notice what was happening around them.  I was well aware that these people were placed in the home due to their inability to take care of themselves, but I thought that they would be at least coherent.  I think that the expectation of playing a game or doing an activity made us assume that the patients would be more able to complete simple tasks than they were.

I did not go into this experience blind.  I previously worked for the West Suburban Special Recreation Association (WSSRA) where I assisted those with mental or physical disabilities.  There were a wide variety of disabilities with which the individuals were afflicted with, everything from blindness to Down’s syndrome to autism.  I figured that working with these individuals would have prepared me to visit the long term care facility.  I could not have been more wrong.  Some of my better memories from WSSRA were assisting the elderly clients.  They were always happy, easy going, simple to be around.  They were somewhat similar to one’s grandmother or grandfather.  I guess that the illnesses were not quite as severe as those affecting the patients of the long term care facility.

Upon arriving at the facility we had a little time to observe the patients and noticed quickly that it would be difficult to get the patients involved in any activities.  As I mentioned earlier, they were mostly all asleep, unaware that they were supposed to be attending our Halloween party.  When we introduced ourselves to the table that I was working at, our introductions were met with blank stares.  There were three individuals at my table.

The male (whom we found out later suffered from Alzheimer’s disease) looked as though he may have been conscious, but seemed to not respond to any of our remarks to him.  We attempted for awhile, but found our efforts pointless.  The nurse finally did get him to respond, but that was only momentary as he was eating one of the cookies.  She did not even offer him juice, I would imagine because he probably would not have been able to handle drinking it on his own.  It may have also been due to sugar content if he had diabetes or if it may have reacted badly with a medicine he was prescribed.

One of the females at our table, the one who sang to the group at the end of function, was startlingly coherent compared to the other individuals participating in the event.  Through the pumpkin carving exercise, she spoke more to us than either of other two did during the whole event.  We asked her how she desired the pumpkin to be cut, always provided two alternatives, and we cut it to her specifications.  She seemed to smile when we were finished, so hopefully she understood what was going on enough to appreciate our time together.

The other female at the table had zero interest in being at the party.  From the moment we arrived, to the time we left, she raised her head once.  The only time she even motioned that she was alive was when we asked her if she wanted a cookie.  She said that she wanted coffee.  Being that we could not oblige, she accepted our offering of a cookie and juice.  She promptly fell back asleep.  It would have been nice had she at least noticed that we were there to spend time with them.  It actually probably would have made the experience more worthwhile had she because she seemed to know what was going on; she just refused to take part in the event.

When everybody was carving the pumpkins, there seemed to be a few groups that had patients who seemed to be getting more out of the experience than my group was, which I would imagine caused them to have a better view of the facility than I did.  Many of the patients, however, seemed to be unable or unwilling to participate.  The hangman game caused the group to be somewhat livelier.  Instead of working in small groups, we all were able to work together towards the common goal of solving the puzzle.  We still had to encourage our seniors to participate, but it seemed simpler to make them active.  Considering the size of the class and that there were only two groups, I thought that there were going to be more seniors than there turned out to be.  In fact, it appeared that many of the students were sitting out instead of actually interacting with the seniors.  As I mentioned before, my table had three seniors and only two students, and it appeared that that was close to the ratio at many of the tables.

What we saw of the facility seemed like a standard long term care facility.  As a child, I routinely visited a nursing home with my mother as she knew several of the residents, and we spent time once a week attempting to make their stay slightly better.  In comparison, the long term care facility seemed to be a much more cozy place.  The facility we visited when I was a child had a more significant hospital feeling; it had a strange odor and sensation emanating through it.  Being at the long term care facility seemed like it was more homely than that.  Were I to be a patient, or to have to commit somebody to a long term care facility, the long term care facility seemed as though it would be a much better choice.