The pandemic has made us all wary of getting too close to others, and rightly so.  Shivers might run down your spine thinking about touching someone not related to you.

Touch, meaning holding a hand, offering a hug or a warming shoulder rub.  Can we?  Should we?  Touch, is a touchy subject these days, after all.

People express their fatigue with pandemic-style living.  How many times have you heard, “I’m so over it”?

Imagine how over it elders who live in elder care communities must feel?  Separated from family and friends for a year with a profound absence of expressive touch in their lives.

Elders Need Touch Too

Touch is the first sense to develop in the womb and one of the last to leave us before we die.  Human’s need the connection of touch throughout their life-course, which includes old age.

Yet, studies reveal that older adults lack meaningful touch in their lives, under ordinary circumstances.  Layer in a pandemic, and the effects will be catastrophic.

People delivering care for elders in care communities must touch to provide for basic care needs.  It is impossible to assist with dressing, ambulation and bathing without touch.  This form of touch is task focused instrumental touch.   We are mistaken in thinking that this is the only form of touch needed or wanted by elders.

Consider from a place of empathy what life absent of expressive touch must feel like.  No hugs or soft embraces.  Nobody to sit with and hold hands or stroke your forehead before bed.

When we emotionally connect with the realities of what living life like this could be like, we can safely step out of a comfort zone and make a change in our actions of care.

Consider the difference a gentle shoulder or back rub could make in an elder’s day.  Or, soothing strokes on the forearm or on top of the legs before bed.

It is safe and possible to incorporate expressive touch with instrumental touch in the tasks of caregiving.  Try beginning a bathing event with a soothing back rub.

Click here to learn more about how to formalize expressive touch as a part of your community caregiving protocol.

Next up,  incorporating expressive touch in caregiving is good for the caregiver too!

Julie has worked in Aging Services for over 30 years and has been a Licensed Nursing Home Administrator since 1990. She is a the Director of Grants and Consulting Projects and a Certified Master Trainer with AGE-u-cate Training Institute. In addition, she is an instructor and of Gerontology and Leadership in Aging Services at Northern Illinois University and lives in the Chicago Northwest Suburb of Mount Prospect, IL.