Guest Blogger: Adam Spriggs

Adam Spriggs joined Kingston in 2018 as Director of Marketing. Adam is passionate about shining a new light on how senior living communities help residents and their adult children thrive with a little help from exceptional caregivers. Beyond the office, Adam enjoys playing basketball, dancing and showering his nieces, nephews and 2 boxers with love.

There are Flowers Everywhere for Those Who Wish to See Them

Death Pits, Grim, Sobering, Alarming. These are words you’ll commonly find used by media to describe nursing facilities these days.

Heroes, Champions, Empathy, Life-Saving. These are the words we use to describe the brave and dedicated staff inside nursing facilities these days.

Without caregivers and housekeepers and admissions teams, these facilities are simply static buildings. Yet, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, these buildings bloom into communal ecosystems of compassion and specialized care that effectively protect seniors from a myriad of threats and conditions that could cause harm.

These qualities have only multiplied in our efforts to fend off Covid-19 from our most vulnerable population. Inside these walls, you don’t have to look far to realize the good intent and essential value of Nursing Homes.

In response to no visitors policies, we’ve invested in communication technology that helps families remain in touch with loved ones. Our staff is finding great pleasure in helping technologically-challenged residents embrace the modern connectivity of iPads and Facetimes. What a wonder this must be for a grandparent to witness their loved ones expressions all on one hand-held screen.

There are countless instances of staff coordinating birthday gatherings outside the front windows of our entries and resident’s apartments, complete with balloons and signs that make socially-distanced greetings and cheers feel more festive.

As we ask residents to become more isolative and precautious about their meandering within the community, we’ve mobilized and customized our efforts to keep them socially engaged. For St. Patrick’s Day, our residents enjoyed a mobile happy hour cart, pushed along by joyous staff members offering up cheerful song, dance, spirits and snacks.

Within these buildings, you’ll find exceptional workers willing to accept the highs and lows that come with caring for the elderly. We ensure their medications are administered correctly, we help them hold onto dignity while combing their hair, trimming their nails and brushing their smile. We sit and stay awhile when they just need someone, anyone, to talk with. We push in the chair at their dining table so they don’t risk a fall, and we straighten their family pictures proudly displayed on their mantle.

With these examples in mind, you might imagine the genuine relationships and mutual dependencies fostered by residents and staff inside nursing facilities. And you might also empathize with the intense feeling of responsibility and loss when our residents fall ill with Covid-19, or any other affliction that threatens their wellbeing.

Because of the uncontrollable exposure risks that exist for healthcare workers outside of the facilities they work in, even the most strict prevention and containment measures are not guaranteed to eliminate the possibility of exposure and transmission to those they care for. On behalf of all nursing homes and senior communities, we ask for your consideration of this unfortunate reality as we continue to brave this storm.

We all look forward to a sense of normalcy, and realize it may be some time before those days are here. In the meantime, if you’re passing by a nursing home on your way to work, be sure to pause and consider all the beauty that blooms inside of our communities each and every day.