Date the Weekly Reflection was first submitted: 03/09/2020

Name: Josie Kilburn

Nursing Home: Signature Health Care Center

Date of visit:

Length of visit: 1

1. Do you feel overwhelmed sometimes by all the loneliness at the nursing home? If so, what helps you to deal with this?

Sometimes in the dining room it looks a little sad, but whenever I talk to the residents or see people talking to them, even if they just say hi as they pass by, they usually light up. It helps to know that you're at least making a difference in one person's day.

2. What do you think about the way we treat people who are elderly in America? What concrete steps can we as a society take to reach out to those who are elderly and/or disabled?

I think that in America once people get old, they are viewed as a burden. Many people send their parents off to nursing homes and then just forget about them. I think that the entire nursing home system needs to be reevaluated, with an extra emphasis on making residents feel like actual human beings. At the end of day, people want relationships. I think just visiting nursing homes and letting the residents know that you care about them is a great start.