Paradise for the elderly, by the elderly
Letter from Tan Chek Wee, Today Online 14 Jan 08;
I REFER to the article, "Does Paro the seal have a place in Singapore" (Jan 11).
I couldn't agree more with Dr Ting Choon Meng's comment in the report: "It's a very sad thing if you come to a stage where the elderly are so lonely that we have to invent a machine and treat it as a living thing and use it as a companion to replace children and friends".
I am involved in the care of the elderly in a nursing home and I feel that the Ministry of Health (MOH) should seriously study "The Eden Alternative" (www.edenalt.org) that aims to integrate plants, animals and children into the care of the frail elderly to alleviate loneliness, boredom and depression.
Founded in 1991 by Dr William Thomas, a Harvard-educated physician and board-certified geriatrician, The Eden Alternative has been applied in many nursing home facilities in the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia.
Studies have shown that it is a powerful tool for improving the quality of life and care for those living in nursing homes.
Also, in homes that have adopted "Eden" as an organisation philosophy, there is often improved staff satisfaction and retention and significant decreases in the overuse of medications and restraints.
Gone are the days of "old age homes" like one that I had visited when I was a medical student — it was in Bishan and was then known as Peck San Teng.
The zinc-roof wooden structure was sited in the midst of a Chinese cemetery where some bed-bound residents lied on wooden planks with their buttocks over holes so that their excrement would fall into metallic potties below.
And I hope that gone, too, are the present nursing homes where residents just sit around — bored, lonely and feeling useless — because the management wants to maintain a "clinically-sterile" environment to meet the approval of the MOH's audit team.
Entertainment in the nursing home's regimented schedule of bathing, diaper change, meals and exercises, include watching television, once-in-a-while karaoke entertainment by volunteers and once-in-a-while pet therapy that could leave some residents feeling even sadder if they are reminded of pets they once had.
Let's make nursing facilities truly like homes with gardens, butterflies and live-in pets, et cetera. And let the residents be involved in the care of such an environment.
It would truly add quality to the twilight years of the elderly.
