Helping Hands, Stronger Hands

Elderly volunteers are less likely to suffer from frailty than their peers who work for pay.

Volunteering may provide protection against frailty as we age, says a study from UCLA that found that when compared to child care and working for pay. Frailty in the elderly involved weight loss, low energy and strength, and low physical activity. The study examined 1.072 healthy adults aged 70 to 79 between 1988 and 1991 to determine which activities are most likely to prevent frailty. After controlling for levels of physcial and cognitive function, researchers found that only volunteering offered anti-frailty benefits to seniors.

"It's important to remember that as we age, one of the most psychological tasks for optimum mental health--particularly after retirement--is to have a sense of purpose," Ken Howard, LCSW, explains. 
 
As we grow older, we want to feel that our lives will have had a lasting positive impact on future generations, he adds.    

"Erik Erikson, renowned psychological theorist, as one of his Stages of Human Development called Late Adulthood (ages 55 to Death) the period one of 'Integrity versus Despair,'" Howard says. "After a lifetime of working, perhaps raising children, [and so on], there is a great urge to mitigate one's fear of death by ensuring that one is leaving behind a legacy that will support those living who are younger than you. Being convinced that 'the kids are all right,' one can face death with less anxiety."  

Performing good deeds with no expectation of pay provides a sense of satisfaction that perhaps working for money does not, he notes, and volunteering offers a wide range of opportunity for almost anyone, with any interests or beliefs. 

"Volunteering can give a sense of purpose and serve our altruistic tendencies, particularly for the civic issues that meet our values and priorities--politics (Left or Right), children, animals, the environment, and the arts," Howard explains. "This can also be expressed through philanthropic bequests in a will. Paid work might not be enough of a change from a previous period of life to serve the altruism urge more purely."  

Michele Howe, author of Burdens Do a Body Good, co-authored by Dr. Christopher A. Foetisch, says that volunteering improves health in several ways.  Foetisch, an orthopedic surgeon, has found that patients who volunteer and remain active after retirement enjoy stronger bone health, are better prepared for surgery, enjoy more social connections, heal faster, experience sharper mental capacities, and overall emotional health, Howe explains.  
 
Volunteering may be particularly beneficial to seniors who are entering a new, unfamiliar life stage: retirement. "A lot of people don't realize that when they leave their primary place of employment, they may become depressed," Howe explains. "Service makes their whole physical and mental well-being healthier; they are giving in the same way they did for a paycheck years earlier." 
 
They also stay connected with other people, she notes. "Most people take for granted that they can live a solitary life, they want that time to themselves," Howe says. "The people who are happiest stay interconnected, and that improves physcial health too."  
 
Perhaps working with people who face daily obstacles more challenging than their own helps seniors who may be struggling with physical or emotional issues, helping volunteers maintain a positive perspective. "As we age we start dealing with more and more physical ailments; when patients come in, doctors can tell who will do well and who will not [by their attitude]," she notes.   

Howard agrees. "Volunteering and other 'generativity' makes one feel alive and vital, at a time when we are coping with the loss of multiple people whom we are out-living--including possibly our children or younger friends in worse health, but certainly among our peers in ill health," he says.
 
Finally, helping others gives us a rush, a high, a feeling of euphoria and inner calm, Howe says, citing author Allan Luks, who wrote The Healing Power of Doing Good. "Helping others stabilizes emotional health, even after the deed is done," Howe says. "It is good for your body, every time you remember the help you gave, it is a pleasure."  

Is it possible that people who give their time, help others, and volunteer may be healthier to start with, which is why they can be of service?  "It is both," Howe maintains. "From young adulthood on, the type of person who is other-oriented and has been doing it all along, finds it a natural transition to be proactive."  

"Sometimes retirement brings such an abrupt change, people become proactive to change their future," she contends. "Older people who had been consumed by their careers, retire and find an empty life, then shift gears and help others Helping to heal someone else's hurts makes a difference to us."   

Researchers say that a randomized trial is necessary to further determine the reasons behind this finding.