Last week we reviewed the fact that loneliness and isolation is debilitating – the impact on our health is the equivalent of smoking 15 cigarettes a day (detailed research has proven).
Also last week, Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg announced that retirees aged 65 to 75 may need to seriously consider retraining for new jobs because as a country we can’t afford to support us all.
At the same time this week, Commissioner Lynelle Briggs in the Aged Care Royal commission made a couple of compelling points.
She said: “There is insufficient staff to the growth in the demand for aged care services. We need a sizeable growth in the workforce in the field. People are what runs this system and we have got to find a way to look at increasing supply”.
She went on to say about people receiving in-home care and aged care homes residents: it is not fair for older people to have no ‘joy’ in their lives.
“No one should be prepared to accept less. This is just crazy stuff”.
But what is ‘joy’? The Oxford Dictionary says:
Jill, who is an aged care physiotherapist, reports that in the last aged care home she worked she had a physio assistant who was 73, working 38 hours a week.
Jill described her as ‘gold’ because she went out of her way to spend extra time with residents and could identify people who were being ‘missed’ in the daily interaction with others.
This physio assistant created ‘joy’, or as Jill calls it, ‘touch’. She spent the time to ‘touch’ people each day. Jill and her assistant regarded this as the best health support they could give.
Home care providers are very keen to employ people in their 60s and 70s who are physically able to provide companionship, cleaning, transport to doctors’ appointments and other less physical tasks.
If you are less physically able but can get about and provide companionship to nursing home residents, there are jobs in volunteer roles available for you with most aged care homes.
Why not think about it? Remember, ‘joy’ flows both ways when we interact with others.
