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Canfield students get hands-on feel for elderly’s struggles
By Elise Franco
Canfield
Some Canfield High School students learned first-hand Friday what life as an elderly person can be like.
Tim Chesney, chairman of the Board of Nursing Home Administrators in Ohio, visited the school and set up several tasks that students in Terri Dance’s textiles class were asked to complete.
He said elderly people are often hard of hearing and have trouble seeing and using their hands, so the students put on gloves, noise-reducing headphones and safety goggles smeared with petroleum jelly to impair their senses and movement.
“This gives them some idea of what elderly people experience,” he said. “Young people are strong and vibrant, but when we age, a lot of things happen to us.
“These tasks are no problem now, but as they get older they will become more difficult.”
Chesney made the experiment into a contest, with three students participating at a time.
They put on the gear then had to listen to directions from Chesney. He told them how much money they needed to get from their purse to pay for their medication and how many pills — pill bottles filled with candy — to take once it was paid for.
Annie Carbon, 15, said she had a hard time hearing Chesney’s instructions and seeing how much each dollar bill was worth.
“It was really hard to see and hear, and the money was slippery to handle,” she said.
Brielle Burton, 17, said she has perfect vision, so the blurry goggles were a shock to her.
“You couldn’t see anything,” she said. “I couldn’t stand it.”
Burton said the experience helped her better relate with what some elderly people deal with on a daily basis.
“I know what they go through, but I didn’t understand how different it actually was for them,” she said. “Now I know how patient you have to be.”
Chesney said the students’ reactions are typical for this type of program.
“There always a lot of surprise and shock,” he said. “It never occurs to a young person that this is reality.”