Columbia Aged Care Services

Here are some simple tips from Home Instead Senior Care to help encourage seniors not to give up their favourite pastimes.

Here’s the kind of question that a concerned adult child of senior parents might ask when he or she sees their activity levels diminishing: “My 70-year-old parents, both in relatively good health, were really active in their younger years. But now that they’re older adults, they seem to think they’ve gotten too old to continue many of the activities they once enjoyed – such as fishing and bowling. How do I convince them otherwise?”

And now here’s an answer from Home Instead Senior Care: show them it’s not true! A recent lifestyle-interest survey (conducted by Del Webb Communities for Pulte Homes) demonstrated that active recreational pursuits – even adventurous endeavors such as hiking and river rafting – have become favorite lifestyle interests for the over-55 crowd. In fact, the activities that topped the study’s list were health and fitness related, including strength training and cardio workouts.

Study participants ranked swimming (55 percent), golf (49 percent), bowling (34 percent), fishing (30 percent), and canoeing/kayaking (26 percent) to be “extremely important,” while hiking, climbing, rappelling and river rafting demonstrated a definite popularity increase. Walking (82 percent) and cardiovascular equipment workouts (nearly 79 percent) were two of the most frequently pursued health and fitness activities.

While not all seniors are going to be inspired to undertake an afternoon of river rafting or hiking, knowing that many do might provide some much-needed encouragement for less-active older adults to resume some of the pursuits they used to enjoy and at some point lost touch with – like bowling or fishing.

If you know a senior who might feel more confident having a doctor’s physical prior to undertaking an increased activity schedule, then suggest that he or she schedule one.  If the doctor deems this older adult fit enough to pursue favorite activities, then that may be all the reassurance required.

Do any of this senior’s friends or other family members enjoy similar pastimes? If so, suggest that he or she contact them to schedule an activity. In addition, neighbors, your local senior center, or place of faith are also excellent sources of companionship.

Another option is to hire a companion helper.  Home Instead Senior Care’s specially trained CAREGivers are screened, bonded, insured and perfectly equipped to help keep seniors continue to live independently.  Every effort is made to match clients with CAREGivers who share similar interests, and CAREGivers enjoy spending time with clients and participating in favorite activities and hobbies.