Nursing Home Volunteer: ‘Tis the Season to Encourage Volunteerism

Synchronicity: A reader commented on one of my recent blog posts, saying that nursing assistants need assistants of their own and noting the improvement volunteers can make in the quality of life in a nursing home.  The next morning I read a post on my town message board asking about volunteer opportunities over the holidays, saying that the soup kitchens tend to have too many offers of service and turn people away.  I responded by suggesting neighbors consider volunteering at the local nursing home, pointing out how much it’s appreciated by the residents and including a link to my post 10 Great Reasons to Volunteer in a Nursing Home.  This weekend I ran into a friend of mine with two young children.  She said she’d read my local message board post and was going to bring her children to volunteer at the home.  She’d helped nursing home residents as a youngster, really enjoyed it, and wanted to give her kids the opportunity.

So I was thinking: What if we all did this?  What if all of us nursing home workers suggested to our neighbors that they might enjoy volunteering in the local facility?  Maybe we’d increase the volunteerism not necessarily in our own place of work, but in nursing homes in general.