Remaining social during social distancing
From quizzes to aerobics social distancing doesn’t need to mean being unsociable at our retirement schemes.
At Wrekin we understand the importance of remaining social and active as people get older. Unfortunately the current restrictions have meant the cancellation of trips, events and groups that we would normally facilitate and enjoy together.
Across Wrekin, in a variety of housing and care settings, colleagues and residents have been coming up with resourceful ways to stay active and inject some fun into their new daily routines.
Sharon Wakeling, Service Manager at Withywood in Shrewsbury says, “We have had to adapt to interacting with everyone differently from colleagues to residents. We want to stay positive and are working together to find new ways of socialising with our residents.
Our game show nice two metre two metre nice is based on the Generation game and has been a real hit. We load a trolley with a selection of items and walk down the corridor past the windows and doors. The person who remembers the most items wins! It’s simple but fun and that’s what everyone needs at the moment.”
At The Coppice in Bicton residents have completed the length of a double marathon in just one week. Together residents aged between 69 and 90 walked the grounds of the building, walking an impressive 54 miles.
Service Manager, Vanessa Turner said; “We had the idea to set some Olympic challenges and inspire residents to stay physically active and improve their mental health and wellbeing at the same time. We’re thrilled that so many people got involved and that we doubled our target distance.”
Other new pastimes include aerobics, where the instructor stands with a microphone in the carpark or garden and corridor coffee afternoons. It’s not an easy task. Each activity has to be repeated around the building to make sure that everyone is included.
On our Retirement Living schemes a regular activities sheet is helping everyone to remain connected. It features, puzzles and competitions and encourages residents to become electronic pen pals so that friendships can continue to flourish, all be it at a distance.
Currently we don’t know how long we will all need to stay at home but it’s important that we do to help protect the NHS and save lives.
11th May 2020