Storytelling as Part of Home Caregiving

Empowering the senior in your life to live the healthiest most active life possible in their later years can be difficult. Many of us try to give them as much independence as possible while also recognizing that they also may be in need of daily reminders, help with certain tasks and chores, or meal planning assistance. It’s important to encourage them to stay as active as circumstances allow, while still offering them the help and assistance they need.

There are other ways to keep them active and engaged as well – while assessing their constantly evolving mental state.

One way to engage with those we love is to encourage them to tell their stories. For some, there is nothing that will make them happier than sharing their stored memories and thinking back on the profound moments of their lives. Encouraging them to tell their stories and speak on the past is a great way to get to know them better as home caregivers, and also an excellent way to keep them active, alert and engaged.

There are many ways to draw their stories out of them and give them a change to speak on their lifetime of memories. Here are a few ways to draw out the stories of others:

Enroll in a creative writing class

In my grandfather’s final years he never missed a week of his memoir writing classes. Every week in his retirement he crafted lengthy stories recalling past moments and painting snapshots of his past. He attended one memoir writing class, and another creative writing class, every week up until he entered convalescent care. He always made multiple copies of these stories and shared them with the family via snail-mail, and we all looked forward to the regular letters.

His memoir writing classes became a way for him to reclaim the narrative of his past. He regularly paid homage to the people he had known and loved who had already left the world – thinking back on the fun sun-filled days of childhood and his early manhood with rose-colored nostalgia.

Creative writing classes can be found at local community colleges and universities, like Wayne State, and also by connecting to local Detroit writers groups through online platforms like Meetup.com and independent collectives like Michigan Writers. If there’s not a class in your area you could always campaign to get one started. Post notices at your local library and hold classes at a local community or senior center to ensure maximum turnout.

Take an oral history

For many who may not have the vision or hand-eye coordination left to write or type, they can still dictate their oral history to an avid listener. Spend some time documenting their life and asking questions, giving feedback, and discussing their past.

Not only will this help bring back memories and keep their brain agile, it can also help with bonding, and, (if you record the conversations) make a great record for their family and future generations to access as well. If they lived through an especially difficult time period, or survived a war, allowing them the extra change to talk through some of those painful experiences can also help them find closure on past events, and bring them peace of mind.

Many local and national libraries are also interested in collecting oral histories from the older members of our society. There are non-profit organizations working to record their stories and preserve them for generations to come. Some organizations include the Veterans History Project, with the Library of Congress, and StoryCorps. StoryCorps aims to collect very intimate and personal interviews – collecting them into a massive archive of oral histories for generations to come.

Empowering the senior in your live to share their treasured memories can bring renewed purpose, connection, and closure. It can also help ward off the loneliness that often accompanies watching our bodies break down. When living in an assisted-living situation, asking people to share their stories not only gives them a change to connect and reminisce, but, if written or recorded, will also help preserve and share humanity’s stories in order to create a more just and compassionate world.

 

The following article was contributed by James Smith. He loves to write on geriatric care, pediatric care, family, retirement planning, investing and more.

James Smith [mailto:[email protected]]