Oklahoma’s senior population is expected to grow 21% by 2030, according to a projection from OHS. Figuring out how to properly care for our seniors is imperative.
The need for great senior care communities is obvious. These communities provide comfortable dwellings for seniors to enjoy a low-maintenance lifestyle with care that suits their needs.
This may include basic care for healthy seniors, assisted living for those with age-related health problems, or memory care for those with Alzheimer’s. Regardless of the type of care your loved one needs, an element of socialization must be present.
Senior events are essential for helping seniors establish meaningful relationships with their peers. When they do, they can decrease feelings of social isolation that commonly lead to anxiety and depression in senior populations.
In today’s post, we’ll explain how to plan engaging activities for seniors and provide some fun and exciting senior event ideas. Keep reading to learn more about the best senior-friendly activities.
Benefits of Community Engagement Events
There are countless reasons to take community engagement seriously. At the core of it all, it helps seniors enjoy better physical, cognitive, and emotional health. Here are some benefits they’ll enjoy:
Improve Physical Activity
When a community offers engaging activities for seniors, they can also improve their physical health. All seniors need at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise per day. Getting the requisite amount helps them avoid bone and joint issues, heart problems, and unnecessary weight gain.
Boost Emotional and Mental Health
Community events and activities help bring people together. It can be difficult for seniors to connect, even in welcoming communities. If your loved one is anxious about social interaction, events can help break them out of their shell.
Different activities provide different inroads to socialization. Over time, they’ll make more friends and establish a flourishing social life. This will quickly boost their emotional and mental health.
Greater Cognitive Health
A major fear for many seniors (and their loved ones) is cognitive decline. Over 70,000 Oklahomans suffer from Alzheimer’s and dementia, according to Alzheimer’s Association data. Numerous factors determine whether someone will develop cognitive decline, but engaging the brain never hurts.
Whether your loved one is doing puzzles or joining a storytelling circle, they can help reduce the chances of cognitive issues in the future. For those who already have Alzheimer’s, events and activities can help manage and even improve symptoms over time.
More Independence
Seniors often hesitate to transition into senior care. It’s often because they feel they’re losing independence. Certain events/activities can minimize these feelings by giving them more independence than they have now.
Peace of Mind for Family Members
Lastly, all of the above benefits provide family members with peace of mind. When they know their loved one is healthy, happy, and engaged, they can rest easy knowing they’re getting the care they need.
Event Planning Tips
Great communities will have activity and event calendars planned far in advance. These will include daily activities to cover everything mentioned above, as well as special events for residents to look forward to.
Here are a few event planning tips to keep in mind, whether you’re a community worker or someone choosing a community for their loved one:
Make It Engaging
The most important thing is that the seniors are enjoying themselves. It can be hard to appeal to an entire community of unique personalities. For that reason, you need to offer different activities to engage with different people.
Some seniors will enjoy playing games, while others might need more urging. By offering different types of games, you can capture everyone’s attention, not just those who already love games.
Simplify Things
Keeping things simple will help boost engagement and bring more people into the fold. Some seniors feel confused or put off by certain activities. If you can simplify the rules of the game or the instruction of the exercise, you can make it less daunting to those individuals.
Mindfulness Matters
Encouraging residents to be present during whatever type of activity they’re doing is so important. Mindfulness is something humans across the world have been prioritizing for millennia.
It can help seniors improve concentration and mental clarity while giving them a sense of equanimity. These things boost mental health and provide an overall sense of calm.
Yoga and meditation are great activities for boosting mindfulness. That said, once a mindfulness practice is established, it can be carried through to every other part of life.
Provide Exercise Opportunities
As mentioned, exercise is essential for older adults. Encouraging seniors to be more active can be difficult.
As people age, they can become set in their ways. If they’ve any mobility issues, exercise can even feel painful. Communities need to provide different levels of exercise for different levels of health.
Mild aerobic activities, like Aquafit or Step Aerobics, are perfect low-impact exercises. Even a daily walking club can help seniors who don’t move around much get the exercise they need each day.
An active lifestyle combined with a healthy diet can vastly improve a senior’s health. Communities should provide residents with in-house dining. At Morada Lake Hefner, we have a tasty and healthy dining menu that accounts for residents’ dietary needs.
Get Out of the Community
Plan activities that get seniors out of the community. If the community is surrounded by local amenities, like shopping centers and restaurants, residents will want to explore them.
Planning group outings will help establish that sense of independence we mentioned earlier. This is essential to senior happiness and morale in senior living.
The Best Senior Events Happen at Morada Lake Hefner
Planning senior events is something every community should do. Sadly, not every community does it well. When you choose a top-level community, like Morada Lake Hefner, you get a community that cares about activity and event programming.
Our activity calendar has new and exciting things for residents to partake in each day. They’ll get to interact with fellow residents, try new things, and maintain their mental and physical health under our care. To learn more about our community in Oklahoma City, OK, and the perks your loved one will see, contact us to book a tour.
