The risk of falling is a fear many elderly people who live alone have. They are afraid no one will know they are hurt, afraid they might have to lie in pain for hours, waiting for help to come. That’s why I really like my volunteer job.
The home health agency sends me out to install a special unit that comes with a help button worn around the client’s neck or on the wrist. It’s very similar to the one on the commercial where the lady yells, “Help! I’ve fallen…”
After doing the technical stuff, like locating a phone jack near a power outlet (sometimes that’s harder than you might think in many older homes) and getting the base unit hooked up, I sit down with the client and explain how to use the system. This is my favorite part, because what means the most to them is the sense of security it offers. And that assurance extends to their worried family members as well.
Here are the three best things I get to tell them:
1. Our operators are always available: 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
2. Your button is waterproof, so you never need to take it off. You never need to be without it.
3. Even if you are unable to speak, just push your button and help will still be sent.
Even though my other volunteer job doesn’t involve installing anything, in some ways it accomplishes nearly the same thing. All I do is go and visit with residents of an assisted living facility. It really doesn’t take much time or effort to get these simple messages across:
1. Someone always cares.
2. You are not alone.
3. Someone does listen.
Young or old, we all have some of those same basic fears. Think about it for a minute. Imagine that you are all alone, no one checks in on you and there is no one to hear you. I’ll admit there are times when this sounds somewhat attractive. I remember how it could be tough just to get a few minutes alone in the bathroom when the kids were very small. But it’s easy to see how despair can eventually take over under those conditions. No wonder solitary confinement is used as a punishment.
What I really find remarkable, though, is that people living in virtually the same circumstances can have very different outlooks. Bitterness, anxiety and despair can reside right next door to joy, peace and hope. Changes in health status can make a difference, but that’s clearly not the whole story.
One 99-year-old lady proudly showed me the afghans she was busy crocheting for her twin great-grandchildren. She cooks for herself and sometimes shares with a neighbor who, in her opinion, “doesn’t eat like she should.” Though widowed many years ago, she is happy with herself and where she is. A recent fall has slowed her down a little, but she is still determined to increase the distance she walks each day with the aid of a walker. Her outward and forward focus may be what contributes to her happiness.
Faith does account for at least part of elderly people’s feelings of well-being. One lady thanked me for stopping by, then added, “But you know, I’m always in good company.” Family connections have been lost for a variety of reasons, yet many years of singing in her church choir have left her with a treasure of comforting verses held in memory and a sense of the constant presence of her Lord.
Committing bible verses to memory was not something I did growing up. Still, I’ve accumulated enough bits and pieces as an adult to be better equipped to deal with those three fears that so many of us have at some time in our lives.
These are a few of my “scriptural help buttons.”
Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me. Psalm 23.4
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes - with sighs too deep for words. Romans 8.26
Please share, if you will, what works for you. It might be just be the help that someone else needs.
No comments:
Post a Comment