Loneliness in Care Homes

It might surprise you to know that older people living in care homes are twice as likely to feel severely lonely as older people living in the community. Often they are out of sight and therefore out of mind - overlooked and ignored. The church has an amazing opportunity to display the love of God to people living in care homes, enabling them to feel valued, loved and connected. 

How can the church reach out to care home residents?

Often churches have an existing link with care homes, whether through running services, visiting church members who are living there, or members of their congregations who work in a care home. These links can be built upon to enable a wider outreach to care home residents, staff and the relatives of those living in a care home. 
​In a post pandemic world there is more need than ever to reach out to local care homes and bring joy, hope and companionship to residents. There is much you can do to develop connections with your local care home, even if there are no existing links. 

1. Pray
Start by praying for the staff, residents and relatives of your local care home, and allow God to grow his love in your heart for all those connected with the care home.

2. Thank the staff
 Let the staff at your local care home know that you appreciate all they do to care for some of the oldest people in our community. Here's a few ideas of how you could do that:
  • Send a thank you card with a box of chocolates or flowers.
  • Find out how many staff work at the care home and create individual gift bags for each staff member to thank them and let them know that you are praying for them. These could include a thank you note, lip balm, hand cream, chocolate, a scented candle.
  • Ask the manager if there are other ways the church could support staff - they may have specific needs that you are able to meet.

3. Connect with Residents
There may be many residents who have no family or friends to visit them - they are completely alone. There are many ways to connect with residents:
  • Write letters to specific residents that the staff identify would benefit from this.
  • Get children to draw pictures
  • Use technology to connect, such as zoom, or Alexa. This may not be appropriate for all residents but there are certainly some who would benefit from this. You can even play online games with residents who have capacity, such as Words with Friends.
  • There is nothing like face to face contact and appropiate therapeutic touch, such as the gentle squeeze of a hand, to help people know they are not alone. One resident had tears in his eyes as he explained to a volunteer visitor that the simple hand massage she gave him every week was the only touch he ever had. Embracing Age has a vision to see every care home adopted by a local church and can help churches mobilise and train volunteers to visit care home residents.

4. Support Relatives
Moving a loved one into a care home is an emotional time for relatives. As a church you may not have direct contact with relatives as the care home can not give you their contact details. But there are still things you can do:
  • Ask the manager to send an email to relatives offering pastoral support from the church.
  • Create a little card or flier that is available in the reception area giving contact details of the church and any pastoral support you are able to offer.
  • Often there are relative meetings at the care home - chat with the manager about attending one of these meetings to introduce the church and what you are able to offer.

If you would like more ideas on how your church can adopt your local care home, Embracing Age offers a free guide that can be downloaded from their website
​by clicking on the button below