The Nightingale Croons Happily - Dignity Lifestyle Residents Do It with Elan'
 With one new member joining in, our total members of Nightingale are now eight. Facilities for the residents now include well furnished cottages, a resident doctor, a professional psychologist and social worker, twenty four hour services of care takers. We try to bring in as much learning and play, as possible. Their daily activities include playing carrom, cards, reading newspaper, going for walks, everyday visit to a nearby temple, colouring and dancing.
 With much fanfare DL celebrated festivals and events like 'Mehendi' and birthday parties. When one of our residents became nostalgic about her marriage ceremony, we celebrated the 'Mehendi' ceremony. We all put mehendi designs on our hands and enjoyed the delicious snacks!
Mrs. Lakshmi's birthday on May 22 was celebrated with a surprise party for her. Asha Gupta, Prem Suri and Prabha Deshmukh's birthdays were also well celebrated.
 Residents of DL also celebrated festivals like Dahi Handi, Tamil New Year and Ganesh Utsav with much cheer. Nightingale residents went for a picnic to Jummapathi near Matheran. The celebration of these festivals provided an opportunity for nightingale and all service staff to exhibit their talent. We also successfully organised a Bhajan sandhya, rangoli competition, cooking competition, antakshari, memory game and group Dance. The festivals were a good opportunity to socialise with each other and to work together as a team.
Residents also enjoy movies which are screened for them regularly, and take great interest in planning menu for lunch and dinner. The idea is not only to do things for them but also to include them in planning and deciding what and how they want it.
On 18th of September 2006, we welcomed with great joy another new resident in Nightingale. 
Some of the alternative therapies we use at the Nightingale are herbal massages from trained masseurs at Modi resorts.
The pristine green surroundings are great for relaxation for all our residnts. They enjoy walks and sit out parties. The cottages are surrounded by mountains and offer a breathtaking view of the Matheran range. During monsoons these mountains are covered with dark, rain laden clouds.
Great improvement is noticed in some of our Nightingale residents. One of them, who was depressed and used to cry a lot earlier, is now a lot more cheerful. He enjoys the green landscape of DL and being a photographer himself, loves to take pictures and sketch landscapes. He no longer is dependant on the wheelchair, to which he was bound till a few days back.
 We have initiated a thermacol carving group to increase the creative activity in Nightingale.
We have a doctor who visits us twice a week. Apart from this, incase of medical emergencies, we are in touch with the Ambani Hospital nearby.
The day is structured around a flexible timetable of physical exercises, group activities, leisure activities, singing, casual conversations, individual activities like painting and sketching. The attempt is to simulate home like environment.
Nightingale is also visited regularly by a beautician for ladies, and a barber for gents. The administrative building has seen the opening up of the library, so that Nightingale residents can borrow books and photo albums for there creative pursuits. |
