Convalescent Home Visit

Convalescent Home Visits involve visiting a senior rehabilitation center, where attendees participate in a program that includes such activities as singing, dancing,  musical performances, games, joke-telling, and light stretches and exercises. The goal of this event is to keep the seniors company, entertain them, and give them something to look forward to every month, as a lot of these patients unfortunately do not have family and/or friends who visit them regularly.

Things to Keep In Mind
Convalescent Home Visits require special consideration for the elderly's needs and concerns, so there are a few things that volunteers should try to keep in mind while assisting with the program:
 * Clapping should be kept at a moderate noise level. Many of the seniors are sensitive to loud clapping.
 * Some of the seniors may find it disrespectful or distracting if volunteers are talking during others' performances
 * Clapping along during a musical performance, sing-a-long, or similar activity can be fun, but make sure to see if the seniors like it or not. Some seniors in the past have expressed disapproval at this (loud, distracting, annoying, etc.), so if someone looks annoyed when volunteers start clapping along, it may be a good idea for them to stop and just listen to the performance.
 * To help include all the seniors in the program, volunteers should try to spread throughout the room during activities like sing-a-longs and stretches (as opposed to grouping up in the front of the room, away from the seniors)

Activities
A list of activities that can make up a typical Convelascent Home Visit program:

Musical Performances
Attendees can showcase their musical talents by playing their musical instruments of choice. When it is their turn to play at the event, performers should introduce themselves, introduce the song(s) they are going to play, and possibly give a little bit of background as to why they chose the song(s) they did. Performers can also encourage the seniors to sing along with them.

Although not necessary, it can be a good idea at each visit to ask the seniors for requests for future songs/musical performances.

Skits
Skits on just about anything can be a good way to entertain the seniors and get a lot of members involved in the program. Since skits do not require specialized skills in the same way that musical performances would, they allow for everyone to participate as long as they are willing to spend a little time rehearsing beforehand.

Past Skits
 * Frozen Skit (Disney Movie, 2013)

Charades
Charades was an activity that was proposed in order to give the seniors a chance to directly participate/engage with the members in a fun game. Different Charade "turns" can either be done by a single person or a group, depending on the situation. For the purposes of minimizing the amount of time spent on deciding what the next topic/answer will be for Charades during the program, it is advisable to have a list of Charades ideas prepared in advance.

Dances
Dances have historically been well-received by the seniors at Convalescent Home Visits. The main reason dances are not performed more often at this event is that it can be difficult to coordinate and schedule practices for a group of participants.

 Past Dances 
 * "One Compassion Tzu Ching Boy Band" performance to That's What Makes You Beautiful by One Direction
 * Hawaiian Dances (mainly performed by the SG's)
 * Gangnam Style (surprisingly requested by the seniors)
 * AWE (Alan, Wesly, Eric) K-pop performance

Sing-alongs
Sing-alongs are another activity that give the seniors the opportunity to interact directly with the Tzu Ching members/officers and volunteers at the event. Songs are played from a radio, cd-player, or other similar devices that are loud enough to be heard in the entire room, and everyone sings together. Printouts of the lyrics for the sing-along songs are normally distributed to the seniors, but volunteers can also hold the printouts for the seniors to see while they sing along.

Sign Language Performances
Staying true to Tzu Chi culture, UCSD Tzu Ching often does sign language performances at Convalescent Home Visits. Particularly at visits that closely follow Orientations, sign language can be a good idea since Tzu Ching Officers have already learned the songs in the past, and do not need to put in too much extra practice to perform them again.