 |
 |
Students Get A Lesson In Empathy Last modified at 12:37 a.m. on Wednesday, October 1, 2003 By Tracy Overstreet [log in to unmask] It was a training session for Bill Bombeck's sociology class before the students begin volunteer work Friday at the Grand Island Veterans Home. "It really teaches the kids an awareness of older people and people with handicaps and to value them as a person and not look at them as a list of disabilities," said Nancy Klimek, the manager of recreation and volunteer services at the vets home. That message came across by putting the students in the place of having a hearing or seeing disability or having a mobility problem. She got out a wheelchair for students to maneuver themselves in, with a caveat. "You've suffered a stroke," Klimek told the students. "Your dominant side will be strapped down." "I'm right-handed," junior Sarah Burling said as she took a seat in the wheelchair. Wilma Luther, the activity director of the Alzheimer's unit, duct-taped Burling's right hand to the chair's armrest and her right leg to the bottom of the chair. "Now go down the hill, across the front (of the auditorium) and up the hill," Klimek said. "Here's a walker," Klimek said, grabbing the mobility aid. "You'll find out what it's like for people with poor balance or with Parkinson's with tremors." Such disabilities or the medications to treat them cause people to shuffle, she explained. "We'll tape your ankles. Then you'll shuffle," Klimek said. "I'm shuffling," said taped-up junior Brittany Mitchell. "Gosh, this is hard. I feel like a duck." Other students were given a fishing pole to cast and reel in -- but had to do so with one hand. "That's the 'a-ha' moment," Klimek said of when students begin to realize the challenge and frustration that elderly or disabled folks face. Similar frustration came to light as students put on flannel shirts and had to wear heavy work gloves while buttoning up the shirt front. It was a simulation of a person with arthritis or who had lost finger dexterity. "Oh I got my shirt buttoned," junior Bryan Houghton announced with only half the buttons done. "I like to let it hang out -- very manly!" "No, now we'll be late for bingo," Luther said. "I don't like bingo," Houghton quickly responded. "It's not so bad," he said of buttoning buttons with gloved hands. "But it's not something you'd want to do everyday." Glasses that impaired vision and an audiotape with high frequency and low frequency pitches omitted gave students the experience of sight and hearing problems -- all issues they are likely to encounter as they volunteer and all issues that can lead to occasional frustrated outbursts from vets home members. Today completes the class's training with an Alzheimer's disease awareness session. "It's a great awareness to what life is all about," Klimek said of the training. Past students who have undergone the training and then volunteered at the vets home have made some awesome friendships and received great knowledge from vets home members, she said. "Several students have told me afterwards, 'I didn't realize older people were people just like us,' " Klimek said. Getting to know the students also benefits the members in reliving youth or living it for the first time, she said. "It's the lost years for them," Klimek said. "They didn't get to graduate or have a new car or go to prom -- they were sitting in a foxhole." SOURCE: Grand Island Independent, NE http://www.theindependent.com/stories/100103/new_empathy01.shtml * * * ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn