Caregiving Story

I was working in the dinning room of an assisted living home. One of the senior residents, Richard, always gave everyone a hard time, yelling at the employees and other senior residents and being difficult. He always stayed in his room and only came down for meals. Everyone warned me about him. The poor man had suffered a stroke and could not talk. He was a very intelligent man and still had his mind but could not express himself, which, I am sure, was frustrating. He wanted a certain number of ice cubes in his glass and his glass filled to an exact amount. The first day I was there, I sat down with him at his table. I handed him the glass and ice and juice, asked him to tell me how he liked it. He looked at me in surprise. He filled the ice and glass. I said, "GREAT", I will make sure you have your drink just as you like it. After that, each day, he would pass me in the assisted living residence and pat me on the hip and smile at me. He started coming down for snacks and just to say hi to me in the dinning room and he even started to socialize with me there. I made him a cup of coffee each day (asking him how he liked it). Everyone was surprised at the change in him. All he needed was someone to understand him or to at least try to understand him. Give him the respect he deserved. and a little compassion and understanding. I have serveral stories in the few short months I was there. But the it really is all how you treat people. The older population deserve our respect and compassion no matter how "ornery" they seem to be.