Philip Y. Kao PhD thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText

sofa, others will simply give her a quick look. Sometimes, a resident will remark, “I am
hungry.” When Christine walks past the residents and in front of a caregiver, the
caregiver greets her with a simple “There you go, go on Christine.” One of the other
residents nearby will simply utter, “Yup.” Residents also pace back and forth between
their rooms and the living area, and this routine can take up most of the time in between
meals. Some of the more anxious ones will find reasons for wanting to leave. Reynolds
was one of these residents, and would get very anxious after lunch. He would dart
towards the door and lean against his walker, blocking people from coming in and
leaving. On such occasions, the caregivers would have to find ways to divert him back to
the living room area. The caregivers often complained that the recreation department
was not doing their job and providing enough things for the residents to do. In the case
of Reynolds, the caregivers found a strategy that seemed to keep him away from the
door. They would put in a CD of old folk songs in the music player next to the television.
When they did this, Reynolds would sit down and sing to each and every song, for at
least the duration of the CD. He did this nearly everyday. Residents, who were lucky
enough to be assigned a volunteer or had a nearby family member come visit, would be
taken for walks around the campus. On wintry days, none of the residents wanted to go
outside even for a breath of fresh air just under the main entrance canopy.
In Memory Care, everyone’s door was kept open throughout the day. Even at night
when people were sleeping, the majority of the doors were left cracked open. Some of
the residents wanted them cracked open, so as to know what was going on. For some of
the other residents, especially the ones that had an unsteady gait or suffered from
Parkinson’s, the caregivers needed to keep a constant eye on them. They did not want
them to fall, or walk to the toilet by themselves. Even when the caregivers were giving
residents their showers, they left the doors slightly open so they could be alert to some
of the other things going around. Because of this, incidents and various episodes
frequently occurred out in the open.
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