When connection is only a text away, many seniors still await for someone to talk to, a conversation to have. This gap between generations stood out to senior Ashley Thompson and junior Jacqueline Dinhnguyen during CNA visits to nursing homes, when they noticed how the elderly longed for companionship.
Over the last couple of months, Thompson and Dinhnguyen developed The Gentle Hand Initiative, aiming to raise awareness about elder mental health and wellbeing.
As they both don’t see their grandparents often, Thompson and Dinhnguyen fully understand the struggle of communication with older generations.
“Whenever I see [my grandparents], I feel like there is some sort of missing component to our relationship which is kind of unfortunate,” Dinhnguyen said. “When I’m with them though, I make sure to help them stand up or with certain necessities.”
With experience from their clinicals at nursing homes and healthcare classes, the worlds between senior care and family collided.
“I’ve never interacted the same way with [the seniors] as I interact with my grandparents, because we [attend to a] nursing home that focuses on memory,” Dinhnguyen said. “And so, a lot of the patients have dementia, so they don’t remember a lot of things in their surroundings. For example, I could be talking to a patient there for about an hour and she wouldn’t remember my name after an hour, which was very different from my grandparents.”
During their clinicals, they realized that seniors lacked a different kind of healthcare, often in need of a good conversation.
“We realized that a lot of people aren’t connected with seniors in their life, like their grandparents,” Dinhnguyen said. “What inspired [us] was actually our experience.”
The initiative originated through HOSA as a part of a community awareness competition, and with a little bit of research, they began multiple projects.
“We just did a quick Google search to see what people were wondering about, like what were the most asked questions about our topic and also the biggest problems,” Dinhnguyen said. “Some of the biggest problems are the growing use of technology. So we did a lot of research on how the growing use of technology affects the connection to seniors.”
One of these projects include a website that serves as a written medical database. By writing articles on the most critical of issues, they bring awareness and create more academic
“Ashley actually built a website that you can post articles on and we do our own research and we often choose our own topics,” Dinhnguyen said.
Beyond their website, Thompson and Dinhnguyen make interactive posters and create presentations. However, the most important part of their initiatives is to encourage volunteering and spread awareness.
“Volunteering is important,” Thompson said. “So doing puzzles with them, taking them on walks, just little things like that can make their whole day. It just means a lot.”
The Gentle Hands Initiative began volunteering with Theresa’s House, and have been spreading love to surrounding homes.
“We worked with Clyde Cosper’s Veterans Home which is about an hour or two away,” Thompson said. “We made 160 care packages and we put cards in each of them to make it more positive and bring joy for the holiday season.”
To Thompson, volunteering and awareness go hand in hand, especially when it comes to teaching teens to reach out to their grandparents.
“We’ve talked to a lot of adults and what they’ve told us is that the real reason that elders become isolated is because kids move away and the parents don’t reach out as much,” Thompson said. “And because of [this] they are able to get that communication in a way.”
For Dinhnguyen, awareness comes above volunteering, as spreading information and education is the Initiative’s first priority.
“I know that volunteering isn’t accessible to everyone because it is very time consuming and you actually have to go out there for yourself,” Dinhnguyen said. “This is reflected in our work [as] we have our social media and done posters that are hung around the school.”
