The Value of Daily Activities
When we are active our mind and bodies stay engaged. While that can be difficult for all of us, it’s even easier for our senior loved ones to keep active. It’s all too easy for the afternoon nap to drag on (who doesn’t love a good nap!).
Keeping bodies active and minds engaged leads to better health care outcomes and higher quality of life. At Mercy House, we are very intentional about keeping our residents involved in life.
Our Commitment to Daily Activities
We’ll do a physical activity with each resident every day. No matter the resident’s agility, dexterity or desire, we get creative to make sure every one can get involved. It might be chair yoga, balloon volleyball, or table polo, but everyone can do something!
Of course, we all have those days we don’t want to go to the gym, sometimes a resident may opt out of the group activity, because we have an intentionally smaller facility leaving more caregivers per resident our team is able to customize the activity to the resident’s liking.
Mental Health Activities
Of course, mental health is just as critical. Bingo is a fun way to keep the mind sharp. One of our staff’s favorite activities is simply chatting with residents about their life.
A few memorable stories come to mind:
Ms. L witnessed the University of Texas Tower Shooting in 1966 from the 26th floor (the shooter was perched on the 27th Floor!). She kept calling the police to report the crime, but the police refused to talk to her because “lady, there’s a shooting down at UT!”
Mrs. S. was always talking about the wild and crazy adventures of her husband’s war heroism. The name sounding vaguely familiar, a staff member brought in a Time Life Books coffee table album profiling Congressional Medal of Honors, and sure enough, there has her husband!
Reminiscing can keep the mind sharp, other times it can be reading their favorite book or having a sing-along (you’ve not lived ‘til you’ve sung “Moanin’ Low” with a centenarian!).
Age changes life, but it doesn’t stop it. At Mercy House, we’re going to help our residents thrive in this season of life through daily physical and mental activities.
