Libraries have noticed a growing demand for services that extend to the homes of the elderly and people with reduced mobility. Cultural services for the elderly have also been noticed in the welfare area of \u200b\u200bLapland.
Iris Teräs praises the service she received.
– There are always such good books. Some books are current, while others bring back memories. It’s always a moment of joy when the doorbell rings and the books are brought. I always feel that now those treasures can be found again!
– In the phone conversation, we talk about what kind of books the person in question likes. We also offer new products and by looking at the customer’s loan history, we can determine what is worth offering.
Rovaniemi library has 70 customers in the Books to home service. There is a similar service elsewhere, for example the libraries of Kemi and Tornio deliver book bags. In the Kirjakassi service, a relative of the customer collects the bag from the library and takes the books to the customer.
Cultural services for the elderly in transition
Before starting welfare areas, municipalities mostly offered cultural services for the elderly in service homes and nursing homes. We are now living in a transitional period, where a new model is being sought.
For example, a cultural instructor model is being piloted in Rovaniemi, the results of which can be disseminated to the entire welfare region of Lapland.
The goal is to create an operating model, i.e. guidelines for the work of a cultural instructor. Eight instructor vacancies have been established in Lapland’s welfare area, which would also enable consideration of culture.
– I’m interested in how, for example, the cultural everyday life between the staff and the residents is realized in the wards of care homes. It can be, for example, that a resident with memory problems is lured into the shower with the help of a familiar song, or that the food is laid out beautifully. We can plant flowers together in the spring, make birdhouses or anything else that has been important and meaningful to the resident.
According to Irene Tika’s observations, the nurses do their best, but nursing work is so demanding that there is no time left for everyday culture. Both the residents and the nurses themselves suffer from this.
The cultural director makes it possible to plant those flowers or use time to set the table, but he also brings memories and experiences into everyday life through the means of community art.
– Now there are two cultural instructors who do not have care responsibility, but their most important task is to be present. In fact, they are highly trained art professionals.
In Irene Tika’s opinion, culture is just as important for the elderly as care.
– Culture gives a person meaning and a feeling of appreciation. Even if a person has amnesia and forgets things in a couple of minutes, they will have a memory of being valued as a person.
Iris Teräs records in her notebook all the books she reads, authors, topics and page numbers. More than thirty books have already been collected for this year.
– Books are a source of great joy for me. I do not complain about loneliness, because my motto is the words of the American writer-philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson: I am never alone, as long as I read and write.