The advancements we’ve had in the last two decades, both in technology and general society, means that a lot of us are playing catch-up with all the new stuff we have to deal with. This seems to be particularly prominent with elderly people, as they are used to the previous generation’s standard of life, so technological advancements are sometimes a tough part to get round. This means that retirement housing solutions should be working extra hard to make sure their elderly people are getting the best and most current help possible. Here are some of the things they should ideally be doing in 2013.
Offering support
All retirement villages, homes or whatever name they choose should be offering care and wellbeing for the elderly as well as housing related support for the elderly. This can come in the form of simple assessments to look at the economic stability, mental health and what and older person actually enjoys, to broader aspects of people staying with them such as making sure they feel safe and secure in their own home. A lot of places like to encourage a sense of community in their sites, so things like street meetings will be set up as an open forum for people to discuss an complaints, upcoming events or other bits of info worth sharing.
Recognising technology
One of the more unfortunate images we can conjure about some of the less reputable retirement facilities around the UK is that everyone is sat round, bored out of their minds, playing cribbage for hours on end with little else to do. Something which is now be realised quicker is that elderly people actually want to use the internet. Things like online shopping and social media should be available to everyone, and so it falls on the retirement villages to ensure that their residents have access to these essential facilities.
Social events
No one said there was anything wrong with cribbage, but there does need to be variation in everyone’s life. Retirement facilities should offer regular and varied events and activities to make sure that everyone has enough mental stimulation to stay active and, more importantly, happy. That can be anything from a days’ excursion to in-house entertainment, competitions, anything really. It just has to be different every now and then.
Exercise to stay healthy
There is the obvious problem of declining physical wellbeing as you get older, but one of the best ways to work against that is to keep going and exercising as much as possible. Any good retirement village should offer varied physical activities to help the residents maintain a good level of health. Popular activities for this sort of thing are tai chi, for health benefits, but also to maintain things like hand eye coordination, as well as other aerobic exercise such as swimming or walks.
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