Active Living Means Recreation And So Much More

Michele Reid, National Director Active Living shares her perspective about the Dimensions of Wellness.

Recently, I’ve had some questions about why we’ve changed the name of our recreation program – and our job titles - from “Recreation” to “Active Living.”

Active Living reflects the strategic approach that we have been adopting over the last five years, focusing and embedding the Dimensions of Wellness into our organizational culture.

The Dimensions of Wellness is a holistic framework that we have adopted and embraced to ensure we are meeting all our residents’ lifestyle needs.

The Dimensions of Wellness include physical, social, emotional, intellectual, community engagement, environmental, and spiritual elements, and are specially designed to balance and complement one another for a truly holistic approach to overall life based on the choices and preferences of our residents.

For our residents, Active Living means integrating all the Dimensions of Wellness into the daily life of residents – in a whole residence approach, involving everyone – residents, their family members, team members and volunteers.

Research shows that people want an active living lifestyle in a retirement home that offers opportunities to engage in their desired choices and customizable options – not a set menu of programs for everyone.

“Active Living means integrating all the dimensions of wellness into the daily life of residents.”

We are trying to weave interconnected, meaningful, and personalized opportunities in a holistic approach by providing quality, balanced programming so residents have choices.

And we’ve embraced technology to help make sure we have real-time data on our residents’ preferences. We use the Welbi software platform (www.welbi.co) to help inform our decisions and ensure that we are taking an evidence-based approach. Active Living team members use Welbi to track our residents’ level of engagement, which ensures that they are familiar with the residents’ clinical needs and personal preferences and that the programs we offer meet those desires and demands.

Welbi also alerts us to potential isolation issues by flagging residents who stop attending their usual programs. This real time, actionable data gives team members a prompt to follow up with a resident whose behaviour has changed, to see if there are health or psychological issues that need to be addressed to get them reengaged and living their best life.

At all our retirement homes, residents will find a community of like-minded people to spend time with, whatever their common interests: books, music, art, painting, gardening, film, or taking part in our Tiered Exercise program. Fitness and recreation converge with intellectual stimulation in our Healthy Minds program, for which the residences bring in guest speakers – or have residents present - on topics of interest. Lifelong learning is vital to keeping older adults’ minds active and sharp. Similarly, the Java Music program strives to build a sense of belonging and purpose within our residents by looking to build a culture of peer support.

Retirement home residents are engaged in life, and we aspire to give them choices and options they desire to meet their lifestyle needs and to experience more living – to live their lives with meaning and purpose.

Helping each and every person live a healthy, meaningful life of purpose is the goal of Active Living!

Learn more about Active Living.