Nursing Home

Today, I went to the Brentwood nursing home for G.I.V.E. and had a totally different experience than my previous trips to this place. I expected to do arts and crafts with your average elder, but today I was in the Alzheimer's ward with severely effected people. Each person was affected by the disease differently. Some people were really excited to see "new" faces in the home, and others didn't even realize that we were there. The lady I was working with had anxiety and wheeled herself away from the table while I was making her project! It was really awkward because there was nothing I could do to get her back to the table. I thought my camp counselor skills would work when I tried to convince her that it was fine that everyone was here, but I was wrong. Oh well! There was another lady in the ward who didn't even remember her name. I was talking to one lady who didn't remember if she had any children or siblings. It was so sad! Some of it was entertaining. This whole experience was really bizarre because the only time I've witnessed people struggling with Alzheimer's is when I've seen it on T.V. I could tell that the elders were grateful that we did crafts with them because they were all really happy while we were there. Even though it was hard to connect and make small talk with people who couldn't remember what they did 3 hours before our conversation, it was a really cool experience because it was completely different from anything I'd ever done before. I'd totally do this G.I.V.E. trip again. It was extremely rewarding!