Listening Friends at Monarch Landing
It's not about fixing…it's about helping to jumpstart self-healing. Listening Friends is a group at Monarch Landing comprised of 10 residents. The objective is for these volunteers to meet one-on-one with anyone needing a friendly, non-judgmental and caring ear.
Listening Friends has existed at Monarch Landing for years, however hadn't been heavily promoted. Del Spaits who moved to Monarch Landing just over a year ago, is interested in making it a more visible and hopefully utilized group.
Spaits draws on his experience with the Stephen Ministry at his church, for exemplifying how Listening Friends should work. "Listening Friends is not faith-based. However, through the Stephen Ministry, I've seen what a support structure can mean to so many people. With the age of our residents and issues and challenges in their lives, there's a lot of room for a program like this to help people," he said.
Most experiences in life can be overcome in a period of time, according to Spaits. "But some bear down on us and are such a burden, that you just need to talk with someone. I found that it may not be one issue, it may be a combination of issues happening at one time. Many times, that's the case. If you can just get someone talking about it, that will often relieve them somewhat in their mind. A person can usually repair themselves if they can get it out in the open and talk it through."
Many support structures rely on groups. Listening Friends is different in that it provides one-on-one support. "This makes some people more comfortable participating," said Spaits.
In seeking members to serve as Listening Friends volunteers, Spaits said that the common denominator is that "they all have a desire to help people. And they are all good listeners and are compassionate. It's also critical that the members can maintain confidentiality." He added that members need to be able to resist a natural inclination to fix things. "We're not consultants. We're there to listen and encourage and provide comfort and hope, but not to fix."
While Monarch Landing is a very sociable place and the residents are close friends with each other, "not many people have more than a half a dozen friends with whom we can let our souls show through. Listening Friends will be one of those persons with whom you can be comfortable doing that," Spaits said.
Residents with problems or issues they'd like to discuss, are encouraged to contact Spaits who in turn, will connect them with a Listening Friend volunteer.
Monarch Landing is a Life Plan Community located on a scenic campus in Naperville, Illinois-named "one of America's best places to live and retire" by Modern Maturity, and "the best city for early retirement" by Kiplinger. Monarch Landing offers independent living, promoting a vibrant life style for active seniors. The Springs at Monarch Landing offers assisted living memory support, enriched living, respite, rehabilitation and skilled nursing services, thus providing complete continuing care for seniors. Monarch Landing is owned by Senior Care Development and managed by Life Care Services. For additional information visit www.WelcomeToMonarchLanding.com or www.TheSpringsatMonarchLanding.com.