Felicia Mcdonald
Gero 2400 TTH-12:30
Carol Jenkins
November 15, 2012

Volunteer Paper I recently had the honor of completing my volunteer hours at Cypress Glen Retirement Community. This facility is located in Greenville, NC off of 100 Hickory Street. Cypress Glen was established in 1987. This facility has several levels of quality care ranging from long term, rehabilitative skilled nursing, assisted living and on-site dementia care. The employees take pride in distinguishing this facility from a nursing home. They immediately highlighted the fact that Cypress glen offers independent living apartments, and cottages, assisted living apartments, and a memory care cottage with 12-rooms for patients suffering from Alzheimer’s and dementia related illnesses. The facility is filled with numerous amenities such as an indoor swimming pool, a full library, a hair salon, and a calm room. The residents are a family and depend on one another for support and conversation. Each room is equipped with its own bathroom. Each room comes fully furniture. They are encouraged to decorate their rooms to their liking to reflect their individual personalities. Cypress Glen is a faith-based facility sponsored by United Methodist Retirement Homes Inc. A chapel is provided to enrich their religious practices when needed throughout the day. They are given monthly entertainment options, such as bingo and arts and crafts. They celebrate various holidays throughout the facility as well. During my volunteer experience at Cypress Glen I was able to witness a lot of new events. I was thrilled to participate in one of my all time favorite games, Bingo. The residents on each wing are assigned specific bingo days. I was always assigned to the Assisted Living residents’ wing. During bingo time they are allowed to play as many cards as they can manage for a grand prize of twenty-five cents. They don’t participate for the money but more so for bragging rights on who won the most games that evening. Another joyous moment was being able to make the ladies feel as though they were being pampered in a five-star spa. Every Monday we provided the ladies with manicures and painted their nails any color of their liking. This pampering service allows the women to keep their sense of beauty. They enjoyed showing off their freshly painted nails to the other residents of the hall. Another game the residents looked forward to was “Lima bean.” Lima bean took place in an auction type setting. The residents were each given twenty-five lima beans to begin their bidding and could bid any number of beans desired for each item. The items ranged from a box of hot chocolate, laundry detergent, Christmas sweaters, or various blankets for the residents. Lastly, for their recent holiday Halloween celebration. They hosted a Halloween party for the residents. Each resident dressed up in festive costumes. There was a live band playing jams from the early 1900’s, which struck accord with all the residents. Several stated they remembered the songs. They were provided with Halloween cupcakes and a special steamy “dry ice” produced punch. At the end of the party the three best dressed costumes won a basket full of candy. The residents enjoyed getting away from their rooms for a few hours and interacting with other residents from other halls. Cypress Glen is a long term care facility that offers a range of services that help older people compensate for losses in physical and mental abilities and remain as independent as possible. At a long term care facility they are responsible for the five ADL’s (Activities of daily living.) The activities consist of assisting the residents whom are unable to individually feed themselves, dress themselves, bathe alone, using the toilet, and getting in and out of the bed. The caretakers of Cypress Glen are responsible as well for the instrumental activities of daily living. This includes more complex tasks such as preparing meals and laundry. This facility only held Caucasian residents mainly because African Americana and Hispanic elders are in poorer health but less likely to enter a nursing home. If qualified for Medicare, then Medicare Part A which is financed by payroll tax will cover nursing home cost. About two-thirds of Medicaid spending is on long term care, making it the primary source of financing for long term care. Many residents are guaranteed a retirement income. The most common public source is Social Security benefits. Without social security, 40% of older people would be in poverty. This is the most successful program of the American Welfare State. While there I was able to clearly distinguish which resident had a strong support system and who did not. Families provide a more instrumental support whereas friends provide an emotional support. There were many parent-child relationships with the child mainly being women in most cases. Help provided by children in parents’ old age relates to the amount of contact over years if parents are divorced. While volunteering at Cypress Glen I was able to sit and talk with many of the residents. My most memorable visit was with Ella, a resident in the memory cottage. She suffered from severe Alzheimer’s disease, which is a common type of dementia. The early signs of Alzheimer’s is a loss of short them memory. Ella was able to recall many stories of her past, including the type of air planes she uses to fly when she was younger. But she was unable to process the fact that her close relatives were no longer living. She talked plentiful of her brother whom resided in New York and her mother and sister whom to were deceased. This coincides with the symptoms of the disease, which are repetition, confusion, and personality changes. The cause for the disease is uncertain and is currently irreversible. There are new drugs that help stabilize symptoms and slow disease process.