Depression is all too common in long-term care living.  One organization, Second Wind Dreams, seeks to provide hope to residents, one dream at a time.

From the Second Wind Dreams website:

Second Wind Dreams® is a national non-profit organization based in metro Atlanta.  For over 10 years we have made it our mission to fulfill dreams nationwide for those who are among the most forgotten in our society: residents of nursing homes and assisted living facilities. Join us in continuing this mission by helping to fulfill a dream or by donating to make a dream come true.  Because you’re never too old to dream or to have a dream come true.

From an article in the Orlando Sentinel by Bard Lindeman:

Paula Kay Beville, Ph.D., [is] founder and guiding force behind Second Wind Dreams, a nonprofit group that marches into these institutions, many of them cloistered warehouses and, to oversimplify, “makes dreams come true!”

For example, an old man longs to discuss Hebrew literature with a knowledgeable partner; a 96-year-old woman wishes that her eyes weren’t crossed; a one-time missionary doctor longs to take “one last trip” to minister to the poor and sick. In all instances, the “dream” was fulfilled, and at no cost to either the resident or the institution. (Trained volunteers work magic through the art of persuasion.)

Recently, Second Wind Dreams of Alpharetta, Ga., rode to the rescue in Ohio. Ms. Geraldine (Gerry) Kelly, age 95, dreamed aloud of once more being a Girl Scout and “going to camp.” Yes, Scout Kelly got to roast marshmallows over an open fire and spend a day at Camp Ledgewood at Peninsula, Ohio.

When giggling Scout Kelly returned to her care center she immediately fell asleep: “I even kept my hearing aids in and my socks on,” she later reported. Best of all, she said, were the “fond memories” the experience called up.

To anyone tempted to say, “So what if these people have an outing?” Beville, who keeps track of 3,000 dreams-come-true from Maine to Mexico, answers that first, depression is epidemic in nursing homes; second, depression requires drug therapy; third, such therapy costs money and often results in “just one more drugged resident”; fourth, staff suffer from poor morale; fifth, low morale leads to staff turnover; and sixth, new hires must be trained, costing still more money.

Click here to read the entire article.