Page 109 - Vibrant Living Scrapbook

Common Sense Assessing and Care Planning
Loner or Joiner?
Are you a loner, a joiner or somewhere in between? A person at either extreme can have a meaningful and valuable life in the same physical structure of the Household Model.
The Loner
Our Loner may have lived alone in an apartment before she moved into the nursing home household. She is her own person
in charge of herself, and, unlike the Joiner, may describe herself as not very social. She tends to like privacy and quiet. She smiles at others but is not looking for attachment. In the nursing home, her private room becomes like her former apartment with perhaps a table, desk, computer and phone. Maybe she prefers a small refrigerator and a cabinet for storing a few snacks. For her, the household outside her room functions more like the neighborhood where she used to go to the deli and coffee shop. The nursing home outside the household, the Town Center as it is called at Perham Memorial, is like downtown to her.
We must remember that people are not obligated to have a family or household life. Each can and should design their own life as they wish. If we try to force it on them or make them feel badly for not joining in, it may insult and upset them, and it certainly won’t make them feel at home.
109