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community
A Lifeline to the World words and IMAGEs Dwain Hebda
The elderly woman shifts in her chair and looks out the window. The room in which she finds herself at the long-term care community where she lives Executive director, Marian Conrad
is quiet and small, some days suffocatingly so. She never used to notice the walls; this time last year, she could sit in the dining room over a game of bridge or
ago, but its emphasis has never been more timely: Provide
look forward to the Sunday visits of her family that included
seniors in nursing homes with a one-on-one lifeline to the
church and breakfast afterward.
outside world, someone to call them, visit them or otherwise connect, a specific buddy in place of absent or distant family
But now, services are all online and truth be told, they feel
members. It’s a mission that grew from the belief that no
more like a talk show. Her family can’t visit as frequently,
senior should be warehoused and alone, cut off from society;
partially out of her community’s safety precautions, partially
a mission made more complicated by pandemic conditions.
out of fear for their own family’s health. Winter is coming and she feels the cold more intently now. She rests her hand
“Social isolation is associated with an increased risk of
on the book she’s read three times and thinks, this can’t be
dementia,” Marian says. “Even those without dementia
how the Author wrote my life’s final chapter.
feel emotional distress, missing hugs and talking to family members and just feeling connected. Mandatory
Marian Conrad is a crusader for the health of the elderly.
face coverings, no visitors, increased hygiene and PPE
She’s not a politician seeking to improve Medicare benefits
and disinfecting everything, is just a recipe for increased
and she’s not a nurse working the ward at the local nursing
loneliness.
home. But the executive director for Fort Smith-based Project Compassion is in a fight every bit as fierce and pervasive,
“The main thing we do is actively listen and empathize and
preserving mental health and dignity in elders’ final years
talk about things on the outside and share.”
through the simple act of connection. **** “There’s an emotional impact of isolation on physical health, mental health, everything,” she says. “Everything plays into
The old man picks at his tray of food, finally letting the fork
that, especially during this time. The staff comes in and the
drop into his mashed potatoes. He’s not hungry; wouldn’t
people they serve see them every day with a mask on. That
eat it if he was. These days, there’s only room in his guts for
can be scary and kind of impersonal. The staffing at all these
the yawning emptiness he feels. His mind goes to her; it’s
facilities do amazing jobs, but there’s real stress at this time for
always on her.
residents; stress of being restricted, of having daily activities changed and being restricted to their room, no visitors.”
She was the best cook in three counties, everybody said so. For their sixty years together, no matter what she put her mind to
Project Compassion may have been born nearly fifty years
in the kitchen, it always came out perfect, even if she’d never
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