Alleviating elder isolation
UCI undergraduate club’s mission is to foster connections in senior centers
Summary
UCI students with Patient Project engage in interactive activities with the residents of five Orange County senior living communities to provide care, empathy and compassion for these older adults.
Aiming to lessen loneliness, a group of Anteaters travels to senior centers across Orange County every week to spend time with residents and engage in interactive activities – with bingo being the biggest draw.
“The main goal is to create community and provide support,” says second-year public health sciences major Nimi Patel. She’s president of the Patient Project, an undergraduate club whose members originally accompanied people in hospital waiting rooms.
Currently paired with five senior living communities, the endeavor lets student volunteers and residents converse, play games, work on arts and crafts, and listen to music together.
“My favorite memory is of two seniors who came often to the events,” says Maracelle Nasrat, a fourth-year psychological science major and volunteer coordinator for the Patient Project. “They invited the UCI students to their place to show their photo albums and have tea.”
Seraphina Nguyen, a third-year biological sciences major and the group’s internal vice president, fondly recalls playing Uno with residents.
“The seniors were hesitant about the rules at first but then got competitive,” she says. “I remember it [well] because a lot of them got out of their shells. The next time we came, there was more of a sense of camaraderie.”
The club, open to all undergraduate Anteaters, draws many health-related majors looking to develop essential skills.
The Patient Project “focuses on care, empathy and compassion – important for anyone going into the medical field and interacting with patients,” Patel says.
“The mission aligned with [my goal] to help others,” adds Michelina Nguyen, a third-year biological sciences major and external vice president of the Patient Project. “It gave me an opportunity to give back to a community that’s not served nearly as much as it should be.”
Patient Project leaders hope, in the future, to recruit more students and continue developing meaningful relationships with the older adults.
“You volunteer during college, but the impact lasts [the seniors’] lifetime – and yours. It’s so worthwhile to be part of this organization,” Michelina Nguyen says.