It’s not surprising that the more active seniors are, the more involved they will become. Overall, active residents are happier and more fulfilled. Increased activity and interaction with others has a positive effect on not only quality of life, but to living a longer one as well. Participating in meaningful activities helps fulfill physical, social and emotional needs.
It’s important to provide opportunities for your residents to take part in daily living as well as social and educational activities — as often as possible. The challenge is finding ways to engage them on a regular basis and build on the level of participation.
Let’s start with how you promote your activities. Like all good advertising, you want the best response possible from your audience. You want the message to get noticed and generate interest.
Be sure your announcements are easy to find and easy to read. Communicate with flair: use bright colours and simple graphics to illustrate the theme and pique interest to attend.
Present clear, visible agendas for the various activities and ensure these are kept up to date. The more accurate the information — and the more meaningful and appealing the display — the more likely your residents will be to participate.
For maximum exposure, post the activities in several key locations throughout the residence, from providing calendars in individual suites to specific displays in high traffic areas, elevators, and outside the rooms or venues themselves. These frequent reminders help your residents retain the information better, build on their anticipation of the event or activity, and give them something to look forward to.
Activity boards are an ideal way to communicate with your residents. These professional displays keep everything organized and add credibility to the information. Using them regularly to promote planned activities creates routines and builds on a feeling of community. (And your staff will benefit as well because organized boards are much easier to update as often as needed.)
An active and engaged community is a vibrant community, and the more effective you are in promoting your events and activities, the more successful you’ll be in achieving this goal.
