There’s a warm buzz as the residents greet each other at the ReConnecTo session. They help themselves to morning tea and discuss how they’ve implemented what they decided to try the previous week. There’s laughter when one participant describes their attempts to get up early to walk each morning.
Based on Meaningful Ageing Australia’s ConnectTo spiritual assessment tool, the ReConnectTo program takes a proactive approach to loneliness – a widespread issue in aged care linked to poorer physical, cognitive and mental health outcomes.
This program is consistent with the BaptistCare aim to give our communities the very best of care, guided by the best available, evidence-based research.
Over six weeks, 30 residents from our residential aged care and retirement living communities explored their connections to nature, creativity, others, themselves and something bigger. Through group activities and reflection, participants built meaningful connections and identified new sources of purpose and wellbeing. The benefit of being in a regular group setting was that trust was established and participants were able to support and encourage each other to try something new or reconnect with something they’d stopped doing. Each week they’d cover a different area of connection, reflect on what they’d done in the past and brainstorm what that could look like now. Often people stop doing something due to health issues or other circumstances but don’t think about replacing that with something else.
In Week two they are discussing what creativity means to them. As they busily choose an item from the table which sparks their connection to creativity they share with the group how they might get creative during their week. There is a lot of laughter as one participant says that they’d like to start playing the guitar again. The neighbours are grateful it isn’t drums but are looking forward to hearing the guitar playing.
ReConnecTo program outline
Over six weeks, the 30 participants (19 from our residential aged care community and 11 from our retirement living communities) explored their connections to the following themes:
Week six is Graduation – it’s all about wrapping up and celebrating what they’ve learned and chosen to do going forward.
Feedback from the participants
Participants said the most valuable aspect of ReConnecTo was the opportunity to connect with others in a trusted, open and non-judgemental environment. The program helped them recognise and strengthen existing sources of meaning and connection, while building the confidence and motivation to continue developing relationships beyond the course.
Participants also valued being able to explore spirituality in a way that reflected their own beliefs and experiences. Through reflection and group discussion, they gained deeper insights into themselves and became more aware of nature, creativity, gratitude, beauty and small moments of joy in everyday life. Many described feeling greater permission to prioritise their wellbeing, take time for themselves and pursue activities that bring meaning and enjoyment.
Particular impact – loneliness
The program led to a statistically significant reduction in participants’ overall loneliness, with scores decreasing from 1.76 to 1.14. Lower levels of loneliness were also associated with greater satisfaction with community belonging, health, standards of living and relationships.
Next steps
BaptistCare hope to expand the program throughout all of our aged care community and also into our community support areas.
“My passion for this project is to facilitate opportunities for people to engage with others, think about what’s important to them and decide for themselves what they’d like to change or add to enrich their connections with themselves, others, nature, creativity and ‘something bigger’ or what gives them purpose. I’m excited to see how this can improve people’s overall wellbeing but specifically in the areas of loneliness”, said Carolyn.
Spiritual Care Week is a great time to think about what connections are important for each of us. Maybe there’s a passion or a person we’ve lost touch with over the years and now is a good time to address this. Perhaps you’ve been thinking of connecting with our community as a volunteer? If so, please click the links below to learn more about BaptistCare volunteering opportunities near you.
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