I love the new campaign our corporate partners at Home Helpers have created called “Send a Senior a Smile!”
As a Certified Senior Advisor, I can tell you that it’s not always easy to find ways to bring smiles to the faces of seniors enduring mental and physical health issues or those who live alone and feel isolated. So, I went in search of ways to share kindness and send seniors smiles through random acts of kindness.
Thanks to Country Meadows Retirement Communities I found a complete list of ideas I want to share with you so we can all make efforts to bring more joy, happiness, and smiles to seniors!
- Send a senior a greeting card to let them know you’re thinking about them.
- Chat with a senior about your major life events like getting married or starting a family.
- Ask a senior or fellow parishioner to pray with you.
- Visit a senior friend or family member who lives alone, in a retirement community, assisted living facility, skilled nursing facility, or hospital.
- Make a home-cooked meal to share with a senior neighbor, friend or family member.
- Offer to go grocery shopping for a senior.
- Take a senior’s dog for a walk or offer to clean their cat’s litter box.
- Download Big Band music to a CD and make copies you can share with seniors, senior centers, ALFs, nursing homes and retirement communities.
- Use a laptop or tablet to find reference topics from your senior loved one’s past that are topics of conversation.
- Bring a bag of high-quality pet food or treats to leave on the doorstep of an older pet owner.
- Plant or deliver some flowers as a surprise for a senior to brighten their day.
- Wash a senior’s car.
- Offer to check and install new batteries in a senior’s smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.
- Offer to arrange a senior’s photos in an album to make them easier to peruse.
- Find a common interest with a senior and share in it together. For example, if you both like to read, read the same book, and discuss it. If you both like to cook, make a meal together or dine at a favorite restaurant.
- If a senior has retired from driving, offer to take them to church or synagogue, to a movie, or wherever they’d like to go.
- Give a senior a lesson in technology by showing them how to surf the internet, send an email or Google information.
- Help a senior sort their mail to help manage bills, personal mail, and junk.
- Make time to spend talking with a senior or listening to some of their favorite music.
- Help a senior with yard work.
- Take a senior’s trash to the curb or place their newspaper close to the front door where they can easily reach it.
- For seniors who are visually impaired, read them the newspaper or other periodicals.
- Install a bird feeder near a senior’s window and help keep it filled with bird seed.
- Invite seniors to join you for coffee or tea, or maybe a backyard barbeque.
- Provide some light housekeeping to help a senior who can no longer mop, vacuum, or change linens.
- Find a classic movie you can watch with a senior, pop some popcorn, kick back and enjoy the show.
- Prepare a senior’s favorite meal or dessert to share with them.
- Create a basket of fragrant soaps, hand creams, and bath salts for a senior woman.
- For senior men, take them to a local sporting event or watch one on tv with them, and learn about their “good old days” in sports.
- Take a senior on a drive around town or in the neighborhood where they grew up.
- Ask a senior to share stories from their past and record them using a microphone or video to share with family members and friends.
- Give a senior a hug!
- Ask a senior’s advice about something because they have lots of wisdom and life experience.
- Help a senior by returning their grocery cart to the stall or the store.
- If it’s raining, offer to escort a senior to their car under an umbrella.
- Deliver gently used books, magazines, puzzles, and games to a senior or senior center.
- Help a senior reach items in the grocery store.
- Deliver flowers or meals to seniors who are homebound, sick, or hospitalized.
- Become a pen-pal with a senior as a measure of socialization.
- Offer a senior a smile and friendly greeting when you see them.
- Hold the door open for a senior or offer them your seat or place in line.
- Have your children make cards and pictures using colorful crayons or paints to share with lonely seniors.
- Pick up the tab for a senior having lunch or a cup of coffee at a local restaurant.
- Thank a Veteran for his/her service by sending them a handwritten thank you note.
- Ask a working senior what they love about their job or career and show genuine interest in them.
- Smile and ask how a senior is doing and listen to what they have to say.
At Home Helpers, the caregivers I employ are awesome at performing random acts of kindness and providing in-home care services to send a senior a smile, and they do many of the things listed above to help make life easier and more enjoyable for seniors 24/7/365.
If one of my caregivers can help you or a special senior someone smile, I welcome the opportunity to meet you and to review the many services Home Helpers® Clearwater provides during a FREE consultation and assessment of needs. During this assessment, I will answer all of your questions and ask some of my own to craft the perfect Cared-4℠ Customized Care Plan that is perfectly suited for you or your senior loved one.
We, at Home Helpers® Clearwater, are honored to have received the Home Care Pulse – Best of Home Care® Provider of Choice Award 2016-2022 and the Best of Home Care® Employer of Choice Award 2022. We proudly serve male and female seniors in Clearwater, Dunedin, Palm Harbor, Safety Harbor, Tarpon Springs, Holiday, New Port Richey, Trinity, Port Richey, Hudson, and surrounding areas. Home Helpers®…we are Making Life Easier℠ 727.942.2539
Source:
Country Meadows Retirement Communities
