 | Rev. Bill Shook has been with Prairie Homestead Retirement Center for 27 years. 26 of those years he has acted as the Administrator. He retired in March 2006 but is still involved with the organization in a consultant role. Over the 27 years of service he developed the retirement community into a continuing care facility. As a continuing care facility retirees can come in at any level of independence and live out their lives on the campus. Rev. Shook holds many degrees, has served in numerous advisory positions and is licensed as a Nursing Home Administrator. He helped start and acted as the Administrator of Homestead Health Center nursing facility for a number of years along with being the Administrator of Prairie Homestead. Rev. Shook can be reached at the Prairie Homestead office, 316-263-8264 or by email at abei@websurf.net |
Senior Living
2006-11-01 08:56:00
Helping older folks be active
I am concerned about my parents’ lack of recreational activities as they have entered into their later years. All they do is to watch television. I have heard that the lack of using our minds allows them to atrophy and that this is one of the causes of Alzheimer’s. I want my parents to have a sense of usefulness all their days. One problem is that they live in a small community of about 2,500 people and, thus, don’t have access to the different activities offered in a large city. What can I do, and who can I go to get some value-added activities started in their community?
ANSWER: You are right in wanting your parents to experience a sense of feeling value to the world. I was in a seminar a couple of years ago with a 95-year old man doing the teaching. He said that as long as he had breath, he was going to serve for the good of the world. Indeed you do present a valid problem in the availability of programs in a small community and, as I am sure you know, that is mainly because of the lack of volunteers. So, let ’s start with something simple like exercise. It is a fact that lack of exercise and diet are the second largest underlying causes of death in the U.S. If your parents would just get up and move around a little bit, research shows that simple changes like taking an extra 2,000 steps a day will help stop weight gain and lead to a healthier lifestyle. I don’t know if you are aware, but more than 66% of older adults don’t engage in regular exercise. According to the U.S. Surgeon General’s report, a person is more likely to keep doing physical activity if there are activities they enjoy.
What about a gathering in the community of anyone interested in increasing muscle strength, bone density, and flexibility with using hand-held and leg weights. It might be a fund-raising activity for some community group to provide these and then just someone (possibly caregivers of older adults who take turns) overseeing this innovative and fun way of people just getting together with others they know.
It is possible that even if your parents are in a senior living facility that someone within (or again a family member) could come up with a unique walking and obstacle path right inside the building. Spreading out chairs for them to stop and sit on and then get up every so often or even like reaching up to touch a plaque on a wall – you know, simple things that would be fun and yet enable them to stretch some muscles that haven’t been stretched perhaps in years.
Even if the following are not normally considered exercise in the broad sense of the word, the following would at least be opportunities that are safe and might get your parents up and moving.
Perhaps someone in the area could start a chorale singing group of older adults in the area. Just the mere fun of singing with others, having weekly practices, and then performances given FREE to the community could be engaging, fun, and fulfilling.
How about taking advantage of the years of experience of seniors by having an ad in the local paper call for those with talents in crafts, music skills, writing abilities, public speaking experience, etc. to come together and present a program a month for the community exposing their myriads of gifts and abilities. It is a well thought-out phrase from the past that it is important for the older to teach the younger.
How about someone (perhaps company sponsored) offering a PC Learning Lab to seniors in the area? As we who are internet savvy know, there is a wealth of information through the internet that could fill hours and hours in your parents’ lives if someone would just expose them to computer basics.
Perhaps a local paper could then begin to feature articles written by various ones in the community about subjects they have researched through the computer and what this new knowledge means to them in their senior years.
Then there is the community holding a Wellness Fair where health & wellness professionals in the area could offer educational and entertaining exhibits to teach older adults about the seven dimensions to wellness: social, physical, intellectual, occupational, emotional, environmental, and spiritual.
I have just become exposed to a movie source. This is an internet movie and documentary ordering program where a person can get unlimited movies one at a time for a month for a nominal monthly charge. A novel idea would be for the community to open a building and one of the not-for-profit, volunteer-driven organizations in the area arrange educational programs, stimulating tours and trips, actual movies, and documentaries to provide in-depth and behind-the-scenes learning experiences for almost every interest and ability: history, culture, nature, music, crafts, cruises, etc.
These are a fun and exciting way to share new ideas, explore new places, and make new friends! These social events should be at no or a low cost.
What about a 4-H club in the area adopting as one of their projects to have a cooking class once a month accessible to older adults where they could once again try their hands at measuring ingredients, mixing, rolling out cookies or spreading a cake mix in a pan, baking, and eating the delicious hot-baked goods right from the oven.
The issue of access to activities which might be of value to your parents is very key to providing an answer to your inquiry. In a small community, the school and the churches are usually the source of social involvement for residents. The school could provide existing resources such as a lunch program, leadership and a meeting place. The local school board may have requirements which will need to be addressed. If your parents are members of a church, I would suggest you contact the leadership of the church regarding your concern. The church would provide an existing group of people who have similar needs and a place for meetings. The use of the church probably would have fewer requirements than the public schools.
The resources to guide the development of such a program are numerous and are noted in this column. The leadership of such a program should come from the participants. This is important because the success of such a program evolves from the ownership the participants have of the program.
I hope this has given you some new ideas. Your question definitely poses a valid area of concern. As the advanced age of our world population increases, it is imperative to provide stimulating activities so that we won ’t someday look back and realize all the minds that were a terrible thing to waste.
