November is National Family Caregiver Month, which will honor, recognize, and support family members that care for their ailing loved ones day in and day out. One group called the Dolphins of Delaware Valley, has one goal: to match volunteers with “forgotten” nursing home patients “abandoned by age, distance or disinterest.”
The Dolphins visit residents at over 24 nursing homes. Volunteers in the program make weekly and sometimes daily visits to the resident(s) they are matched to, and build relationships that help each resident maintain support and love while staying in a nursing home.
The group sees that while family caregivers provide a great deal of their time, love, and support to their family members in need, it is a job that can also be done be kindhearted strangers. They enjoy visiting with the residents and quickly become family by a new-formed bond of volunteerism combined with respect and love. For more, read the story.
Robert W. Carter, Jr. is a Virginia attorney whose law practice is dedicated to protecting the rights of the victims of nursing home and assisted living neglect and abuse in Richmond, Roanoke, Norfolk, Lynchburg, Danville, Charlottesville, and across Virginia
