What A Summer Vacation Program Means To Nursing Home Residents


 

Publication Date: June 1980

Publisher: Jewish Communal Service Association of North America)

Author(s): Deirdre Inga Arnowitz

Research Area: Health

Keywords: Institutional Care; Elderly; Social Services

Type: Report

Coverage: United States

Abstract:

The author describes the success of a summer vacation program that brought residents of an Ohio nursing home to a camp in Michigan for relaxation and out-of-the-ordinary activities. Such programs can have a large effect, the author argues, because they can change the way residents see themselves. Residents in nursing homes tend to assume the role of sick patients, she writes. But when staff makes a positive effort to change the primary message from caring for the sick into creating opportunities for residents to live at their full potential, residents will respond.

In Journal of Jewish Communal Service, v.56 no.4, Summer 1980.