Insight into Living in Aged Care

A recent article in Aged Care Insite magazine, Barbara Barbosa Neves, a social researcher and Monash University lecturer, spent 6 months in 2 aged care facilities in Melbourne, Australia. She specifically looked at loneliness, feelings about ageing and connections with others. Every human seeks meaningful social connections. Dr Julie Bajic Smith, psychologist in Greater Sydney, works in this area in a very practical sense in our aged care facilities, supporting residents and enabling staff to feel more empowered in their important role.

While we can feel motivated by simply being redirected to a more positive perspective when feeling ‘down’, what we often long for is someone who can listen and empathise with our current situation. For those ageing residents, feelings of loneliness or pointlessness in their lives, can be constant and overwhelming. They often feel they are losing more and more each day, as their interests and world shrinks.

Asking the resident what interests they have can often lead to an easy solution to bring that interest back into their day. Looking for ways to retain their past interests, for example organising audio books for the avid reader who feels they can no longer read easily, is a great way to connect with a familiar past or venture into a new one.

I’ve spent many an hour before, during or after a swallowing assessment in a facility or someone’s home, allowing the elderly loved one to reminisce about their career, family and friends. It gave me great joy to share a portion of their lives and, by the looks on their faces, that joy was not only my own. Everyone is busy but taking a moment to connect with others is worth every second.