Digital Tools for Shepherding Seniors

Mary had lost her speech without warning and was clearly frustrated. The staff suspected a small stroke as the cause, and they called me in to sit with Mary as the medical team assessed what to do next.

Mary's eyes brightened when I sat down, but she couldn't form my name on her lips. I opened my laptop and started a slideshow of pictures of prominent buildings from our community, where she had spent most of her adult life. She soon began to form the names of the historic sites—with difficulty at first, but with increasing clarity and ease.

Then I asked her about her childhood. She was able to say "Huntingdon," so I retrieved digital images of buildings in Huntingdon from the internet. She said haltingly that her father worked at a locomotive boiler factory there when she was a child. A Google search turned up a picture of the factory building.

Each internet image led to other memories. Within 40 minutes of my arrival, Mary was conversing normally with me. She was a talking miracle made possible by the digital tools I carry with me.

As a chaplain in a Presbyterian nursing home, I walk the halls with laptop in hand, on the hunt for minds to stimulate and stories to hear. I have found that many of the modern tools available to us can be marvelous stimulants for the memories and imaginations of the elderly.

Evelyn has Alzheimer's that has progressed to the extent that her short-term memory is limited, and she has lost many memories from the past. She retains, however, the marvelous capacity to sing hymns she learned when she was young.

She and I have wonderful times in front of my laptop on websites such as NetHymnal.org, singing hymns together in her room. In some ways, the laptop is more useful in these situations than traditional instruments. For one thing, it's portable. In addition, the file playback speeds can be adjusted to suit a person's capacity for remembering and singing. I store a few favorite hymns and Christian songs on my computer for easy access when an internet connection is unavailable.

During one men's group, for example, we discussed our favorite cars and then searched for images of them online. I then gave the men a chance to get behind the wheel of the system's driving simulator. One man who had recently given up his driver's license because of Parkinson's disease found it wonderfully enlivening to listen to the digital rumble of a virtual Monte Carlo as he raced it around a simulated road course.

We have recently invested in an interactive computing system called "It's Never Too Late," which provides historical videos, games, puzzles, and 3D tours of distant places. Wii and PlayStation machines can be easily carried to the homes of shut-ins. The Wii in particular provides physical activity and becomes a source of community building between the young and old.

With a bit of planning, interactive Bible lessons that employ videos and music can be saved to a laptop hard drive and carried to the homes of elderly parishioners who might not be able to attend a Bible study. I use Bible software with scalable fonts and audio playback to help minister to the visually impaired. Spiritual caregivers have the privilege of helping the aging remember what God has done and will do in their lives. Fortunately, technology can easily be re-envisioned as a tool for ministering to those whose aging process has left them feeling disconnected from the Christian community and from God.

—Marty Bullis is a chaplain at Windy Hill Village in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania.