post vist reflection

What were the problems our group had encountered during the visit and how those problems are being resolved?

During the visit to the Old Folks Home, our group members were worried about having difficulty in communicating with the elderly as people of the older generation often speak dialects that we do not understand. Furthermore, we are going to a Muslim home but none of our group members speaks Malay. Fortunately, the person-in-charge of the home introduced us to those elderly who speaks good English and our worries were cleared.

Another problem we faced was getting a common date for the visit. Our group members are quite busy and we are available at different time, but we still manage find a common date to complete our CIP work. A minor problem that most groups would encounter would be cooperating with the group members. Our group members had different opinions in doing the work but were resolved quickly after a short discussion.

Through this CIP project, we have learned that having a family is important in our life as they can provide as a support for oneself. Although the elderly are well taken care of in the elderly homes, they still miss their family. We should always cherish our family and spend time with them. Four of us have managed to work with each other and cooperate well despite there were some minor problems that were resolved.

Before this CIP project, we have never work with each other. Hence we were not very close and do not understand each other a lot. Through this project, we get to know our classmates better and work well together to complete our task. We think that we would work better if we have a chance to work in this group again.

The visit to the Old Folks Home was really an enjoyable and memorable CIP that the school had organised for us.

Details of the visit

First visit

We made our first visit to "Jamiyah home for the aged" on 8th June 2009. We reach the home at nine in the morning and were just in time for the morning exercise in the multipurpose hall . We demonstrated on stage with the home supervisor while the elderly try to follow the move and most of them seems quite attentive.

After the work out was their tea break.We served the elderly with food and the supervisor introduced us to different elderly for us to interact with them. Mohana and Yanxiu chatted with Mrs. Lim and went to the back of the hall, took a scoreboard and played with some other people.one of whom looked young and she unable hear and speak properly but she was the winner of the game.On the other hand, Chong ren and Dajing get to interact with another elderly who use to be a policeman! He shared his experience with us and advised us not to take any drugs or involve in any illegal activities.After our lunch break we went back to the hall and interview one of the resident. We were told that the identity of the residents are confidential,therefore we are not allowed to take photos of residents.We interview Mrs.Lim and did a recording.

Mrs.Lim came to Jamiyah home herself, she have many childrent, she does not want to become their burden and thought that coming to this home would be the best for her childrent and herself, she also shared with us her life in Jamiyah home. Four of us have all learned some moral vales through the interaction with the elderly.

Second Visit

Our second visit was on the 12th June 2009.We reach the home by nine am and went straight to the hall to interact with the elderly, we met Mrs. Lim,she was happy to see us again we chatted with her for a while and went to serve food for the elderly.

After their tea break we did the cleanings and make our way to physical therapy room.There, we interact with the elderly by playing with them. although it was just a simple game, passing the ball around, the elderly seem enjoying. We interview one of the physical therapy helper, he told us about his job and feelings towards the elderly.

He is a staff from the Physical therapy home and Jamiyah Home for The Aged receive services from them.Their job is to get the elderly to do some strengthening exercise and provide activities for the elderly.

The physical therapy room was filled with many different kind of equipments for the elderly to use. There are also drawings,necklace done by elderly displaced on the board and according to the helper, they do cooking too!

We spend our afternoon in physical therapy room and headed home around two-thirty pm.

Pre-visit

We searched on the internet for a home where we can do our CIP and found a list of elderly homes in Singapore. All of the group members come together and from the list we decided on Jamiyah Home For The Aged which is the most convenient elderly home as it is located near our house and there is a direct bus for us.

We are doing CIP in elderly home so that we will be able to understand them better and learn important life values so that we can use in future. We can have better interaction with them by understanding what are their hopes for the future and talking with them about their past experience. We can also share with them some of our own life experience that they can guide us along as they are more wise than us. From the environment they live in we can tell a lot about their feelings and their hopes. This may help us to get to know the elderly better.

There are some potential problems that we may face such as fixing the dates with the home. Previously when we called the home they said that we are only to visit the home once but we have to make a minimum of 2 visits to the same elderly home. Getting a the common dates for the group members can be a problem when we are available at different time slot so we need to work as a team to get the right time slot for everybody. Problems like interacting with the elderly may be a great problem as none of our group members know any dialects. We may need to use hand signs that they can understand to communicate with them and help us in interacting. Some elderly may have diffculty in walking and understanding us therefore we need to know and read on some simple health care guides to help us in this CIP.

We are looking forward to the visit =)