Who says ageing can’t be fun?! Whatever your age, interests, or abilities, there are always things you can do to have fun, such as traveling with friends or keeping up your long-time hobbies such as art or gardening! But planning activities particularly for residents in aged care facilities can be tricky. Here is a list of 10 activities that everyone can enjoy at any age!
Group Exercise Sessions
Group exercises, like Yoga or Zumba sessions, are enjoyable and can help the elderly improve flexibility and balance, which are crucial to preventing falls in older adults. Aged care facilities schedule weekly sessions and offer them to seniors to help them relieve muscle pain and make them active again! This is an excellent way for people who are experiencing discomfort in their bones!
Video Games
Senior life can’t be just filled with cooking, exercising and gardening anymore! The number of gamers over 55 is on the rise and has been for the last few years. The creators of Bejewelled, a top-rated mobile game, said that 47% of their 150 million players worldwide were over the age of 50. Studies suggest that 3D games can help with memory loss such as Candy Crush, Wordscapes or Super Mario Bros. Wii.
Interactive digital video games such as Wii Sports and Nintendo Switch a list of games perfect for the elderly where they can move their bodies in games that uses motion sensor controls. In addition, there are various games that the sports-minded seniors can play, including bowling, tennis, golf, and basketball games!
Walking Groups
Who doesn’t love walking? Walking around the community is one of the easiest ways to keep your residents active, and it’s also a great way to make friends. You can arrange a schedule and encourage them to join where they can walk together around a nearby park. There are walking groups all over the country (1,200 groups and counting!) that seniors can join, meet new people and keep themselves physically active!
Gardening
Gardening is a healthy, stimulating physical activity that older people can enjoy. Gardening increases levels of physical activity and maintains mobility and flexibility. There are available gardening tools in places that fit the needs of the elderly. And the best benefit of all: fresh veggies straight out of their yards!
Besides starting their own mini vegetable farm in their backyards to fill up their pantries, they can join gardening clubs and festivals around the city! Where they can sign up for workshops and exhibits to share their experiences and work with other gardening enthusiasts!
Book Clubs
Facilitating book clubs are perfect for seniors who love to read books! Sharing stories, ideas and just talking about the books they’ve read is an excellent opportunity for them to socialise and connect with other seniors in the community. Reading books is also a great way to help your residents to be mentally alert!
Looking after a pet
There are several benefits when you encourage an elderly to look after a pet or even take a trip down a pet daycare. Benefits include improvement in mood (because pets make us smile!), improves communication (who doesn’t like talking to their pets at home? even if you know they won’t talk back?!) and last but not least, they pets reduce your risk of heart disease.
So even though they choose a pet that isn’t a cute fur baby, just having a pet look after has positively affected people’s mental well-being. You can adopt a pet for your seniors or buy them in licensed pet stores.
Art Workshops
Many seniors who have worked around different jobs have lost a lot of time to start something they like doing, or some never found their favourite hobbies because they were too busy to make a living. And as they enter their retirement years, they have newfound creativity!
There are workshops available that they can work on with their friends or in their private spaces. Watercolour and acrylic painting and expressive art workshops are some of the avenues for artistic expression. And pottery making, too! And it creates a bond within your residents’ social groups, Making art in a group as a way to engage with others.
Field Trips and Excursions
Nothing feels like home, but of course, nothing feels like the world outside where you can have fun and see your loved ones! Include field trips to a national museum or local parks to keep your seniors active! You can arrange a schedule with your volunteers and carers so you can assist a big group during the day. Some organisations have special tours for seniors in the community.
Tours around the Australian Museum, Melbourne Museum and Sydney Museum are great starting points for your day field trips! And you can definitely invite family and friends to accompany them, too!
Music Therapy
Music is an integral part of daily life. It can start with your favourite song as your alarm or listening to music while driving your way to work. And music has a fundamental role in our identity, culture and can evoke emotions and memories from the past, thus creating a strong influence on our mindset and well-being.
There are several music therapy sessions that you can arrange for your residents. These sessions have proven benefits for seniors, especially people with dementia, by expressing their feelings, communicating, and prompt memories through listening, singing, songwriting, or playing an instrument.
Spa Days and Self-Care
Everyone knows that self-care is important. Looking after oneself should be a priority as we age and retire. Many aged care facilities offer various ways for the elderly to show some love for themselves, such as special spa days — including haircuts, massage sessions, acupuncture sessions, and even skin treatments so they can relax and enjoy a day off!
Every senior deserves some time to focus on themselves, relax, develop a new skill, and enjoy the retirement they’ve worked so hard for. But, for some, retirement means beginning a new chapter in their lives where they can freely enjoy things and work on the things they’re passionate about. So carers, lifestyle managers and even family members need to know what they want to do during their retirement years and encourage them to live their lives to the fullest.
CareVision: making it easier for your teams to plan community activities
CareVision’s Lifestyle Management Package software helps you organise and run your community activities, including activity planning, compliance management and lifestyle tracking, supporting both management and client experience.