5 Ways to Volunteer at a Nursing Home

Are you interested in volunteering to help the needy in your home town? Why not volunteer at your local nursing home? Elderly people need companionship, and they are a wealth of history. All you have to do is visit with the nursing home administrator and get permission to volunteer at your local nursing home facility. The administrator does have to approve the volunteering person and the activity, but you have lots of choices in how you volunteer. Here’s 5 ways in how you can make a difference by volunteering at your local nursing home:

Group Visits. If you have a children’s group that want to volunteer their time, then have them go Christmas caroling down the halls of your local nursing home. Each child could bring a package of inexpensive handkerchiefs for men and women. You could unwrap the handkerchiefs and tie a pretty ribbon around each. The group could then visit your local nursing home and give each resident a handkerchief for a Christmas gift. Afterwards, the group could brighten the residents’ evening by caroling up and down the halls of your local nursing home.

Bingo calling. If you like bingo, then become the official bingo caller for your local nursing home. This makes a great Saturday or Sunday afternoon excursion for nursing home residents. You could even give toiletries and other such items for prizes. For example, you could give lotions or bath powders to the winners. You do want to be careful about giving food products as prizes because many nursing home residents are on special diets. You can give lots of other types of prizes, though, that the residents would appreciate.

Sewing circles. Many nursing home residents are still great seamstresses. (You might even find a man or two who can teach you something in this area.) Why not form a sewing circle (or a quilting circle) with these residents to help them practice the sewing craft. This is good exercise for them and a learning opportunity for you. Too, such circles provide bonding time, giving nursing home residents the opportunity to stay connected with the outside world through friendship with you.

Hair braiding. You can volunteer even for the simple task of hair braiding. Often times, nursing homes run short of help for one reason or the other. This means that the elderly lady who is so used to having her hair meticulously braided might have to settle for it being pulled back into a pony tail This is where you could help. You could save the nurse aides some time and please the elderly resident by being there to braid her hair. Even better, you get to make a new friend and so does the resident.

Reading and writing. Some nursing home residents have trouble reading and writing due to physical ailments, so why not help them correspond with their family? You could take a pen and paper and some stamped envelopes out to your local nursing home and write a short letter for some of the residents and then mail these for them. Some might even want to send a birthday card or two. Now, this effort could quickly get expensive, but you could ask your friends or your church to help fund your efforts. You might even be able to raise funds in other ways, if you just look around.