CHARITY WORK: Volunteers from Cardonald College have being visiting Cardonald Care Home monthly to help bring some Easter joy to the elderly residents.
By Chris Kelso
Volunteers from Cardonald College are hoping to bring some Easter cheer to residents at a care home in Cardonald.
The project is spearheaded by media lecturer Jim McIvor who hopes the monthly visits to Cardonald Care Home will have an impact on the volunteers themselves as well as the elderly.
He said: “What we do is read stories and poems to the residents then we sit down with them and discuss with all sort of things.
“We try to have a different theme each week. The group has two aims – to help the students and the residents develop a partnership which will help both come to an understanding of each other and improve relationships between young and old people.
“We also hope to improve the health of the elderly residents through story telling which hopefully improves their memory and helps with dementia.”
Jim was inspired to take action after seeing a documentary where student volunteers helped the elderly in their area with staggering results.
“I organised the event having watched a programme on BBC about a university that went into a care home and read stories over a few weeks.
“This greatly helped to improve the memories of the residents along with improving dementia.”
The reaction has been just as positive for Jim and his group of volunteers and hopes to expand the group by forging partnerships within Cardonald College.
“The response has been great and we have also linked up with the social care department in the college to encourage care students who want a career in working with the elderly to gain the experience that they will require in the job, which they will get by being part of the project over at the care home.”
The Cardonald Courier 
Posted on March 28, 2013
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