Getting seniors engaged with life is important and beneficial for not only senior citizens themselves, but their families and the communities in which they live. Good luck!
The most devastating aspects of aging are the loss of control over your life choices and the loss of dignity. This unique "nudge" concept will allow a senior to maintain some control over what they CHOOSE to be involved in as well as allowing them to participate with dignity rather than being told like a child what they are to do each day! This is an inspiring idea that allows us to benefit as well from a seniors lifetime of experience and knowledge.Keep up the good work!
I agree with your approach of making incremental changes to improve health. In our LoneStart Wellness initiative, we find you can't ask people to "do it all at once," or even commit to it all at once. It's a series of steps, one building on and leading to another. With seniors I can see this as a real challenge. In moving seniors "out of a rut," do you also look at activities such as crafts or games (scrabble, number games, cards) that can help keep memory sharp?
Seniors mental, physical and psychological abilities decline and improve for varying reasons and degrees. To truly bring out the higher potential in each individual requires sufficient one on one inter-reaction with knowledgeable and diverse listeners, as many elders silently withdraw from the outer, on-going society surrounding them. Using a multi-prong approach, such as put forth here by the Memory Health and Fitness Institue, would offer seniors a multitude of possible paths to use and improve their unique skills to live in the present by finding their own, personal stimulant. For way too long, organized medicine has been grouping seniors into "one size fits all" loving care...when in reality it was cost savings that told them all to be in the parade, whether they wanted to or not ! This approach is breaking new ground...that will certainly improve the quality of seniors remaining time on earth, which is more important than increasing their quanity of time here.
Wow, it is so great to see such an amazing and supportive response to your entry! The benefits to the seniors you are working with seems like there is some real and beneficial behavioral change. I am wondering if you can expand upon your ideas for scaling? Have you any tentative partnerships with other institutes where this might spread to? Or do you have other specific ideas for expanding the impact of the initiative?
I am also wondering if you have considered other ways to make the behavioral nudges of your program part of everyday life so that attendance in sessions is less relied upon and there are other ways to promote the changes. These are just some thoughts I had while reading over your entry. It really is a fantastic program.
Hi Chloe and to the greater ChangeMakers community!
First of all, thank you for your supportive comments and questions; after so much hard work, believe me it is much appreciated!
Since posting our ChangeMaker entry, we're closer to forming long-term partnerships with area community centers and hopefully, fingers crossed!, a health insurance company. The health insurance prospect really excites me because they are strong advocates of prevention, and I feel our data-supported prevention program would be an excellent asset both to increasing general health and well-being but also to reducing health care costs--both for the company and the consumers.
The Helping Seniors to Engage (HSE) project has already moved into a second phase whereby we are examining potential biomarker changes resulting from the program. We are also assessing a second variable that we're keeping "hush-hush" about, but we think it'll have a similar tremendous impact as well. :)
The behavioral nudges are designed, from the beginning, to actually be a part of everyday life. Each novel activity occurs within the daily life of our trainees, e.g., taking the stairs instead of the elevator. Therefore, we hope, and preliminary data analysis confirms, that trainees are continuing to engage in the nudges not only when they are outside of the actual class but, and this is most important I think, after the class is over. Our hope in designing the program the way we did, was to have the reinforcing impact of the changes, e.g., "Wow, adding a couple of hundred steps to my day really wasn't that difficult and I sleep better as well," occur outside of the classroom, so the "feel good" association that is created is not connected with the class itself but with the trainee's own behavior choices. Here the agent of change is the trainee themselves and not the class or the class instructor; the class simply is a conduit.
I encourage others to post questions as well!
--Dana
Comments
Good luck!
great blend of academic research and practical ideas!
Getting seniors engaged with life is important and beneficial for not only senior citizens themselves, but their families and the communities in which they live. Good luck!
What a great idea, I hope you are able to see your efforts produce real fruits.
The most devastating aspects of aging are the loss of control over your life choices and the loss of dignity. This unique "nudge" concept will allow a senior to maintain some control over what they CHOOSE to be involved in as well as allowing them to participate with dignity rather than being told like a child what they are to do each day! This is an inspiring idea that allows us to benefit as well from a seniors lifetime of experience and knowledge.Keep up the good work!
I agree with your approach of making incremental changes to improve health. In our LoneStart Wellness initiative, we find you can't ask people to "do it all at once," or even commit to it all at once. It's a series of steps, one building on and leading to another. With seniors I can see this as a real challenge. In moving seniors "out of a rut," do you also look at activities such as crafts or games (scrabble, number games, cards) that can help keep memory sharp?
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Melinda Seifert
www.lonestartnow.com
Seniors mental, physical and psychological abilities decline and improve for varying reasons and degrees. To truly bring out the higher potential in each individual requires sufficient one on one inter-reaction with knowledgeable and diverse listeners, as many elders silently withdraw from the outer, on-going society surrounding them. Using a multi-prong approach, such as put forth here by the Memory Health and Fitness Institue, would offer seniors a multitude of possible paths to use and improve their unique skills to live in the present by finding their own, personal stimulant. For way too long, organized medicine has been grouping seniors into "one size fits all" loving care...when in reality it was cost savings that told them all to be in the parade, whether they wanted to or not ! This approach is breaking new ground...that will certainly improve the quality of seniors remaining time on earth, which is more important than increasing their quanity of time here.
I applaud your work and wish you the best of luck.
I wish my grandparents were around to see your work!
Hi Dana-
Wow, it is so great to see such an amazing and supportive response to your entry! The benefits to the seniors you are working with seems like there is some real and beneficial behavioral change. I am wondering if you can expand upon your ideas for scaling? Have you any tentative partnerships with other institutes where this might spread to? Or do you have other specific ideas for expanding the impact of the initiative?
I am also wondering if you have considered other ways to make the behavioral nudges of your program part of everyday life so that attendance in sessions is less relied upon and there are other ways to promote the changes. These are just some thoughts I had while reading over your entry. It really is a fantastic program.
Good luck!
-Chloe Feinberg
Ashoka
Full Economic Citizenship
Hi Chloe and to the greater ChangeMakers community!
First of all, thank you for your supportive comments and questions; after so much hard work, believe me it is much appreciated!
Since posting our ChangeMaker entry, we're closer to forming long-term partnerships with area community centers and hopefully, fingers crossed!, a health insurance company. The health insurance prospect really excites me because they are strong advocates of prevention, and I feel our data-supported prevention program would be an excellent asset both to increasing general health and well-being but also to reducing health care costs--both for the company and the consumers.
The Helping Seniors to Engage (HSE) project has already moved into a second phase whereby we are examining potential biomarker changes resulting from the program. We are also assessing a second variable that we're keeping "hush-hush" about, but we think it'll have a similar tremendous impact as well. :)
The behavioral nudges are designed, from the beginning, to actually be a part of everyday life. Each novel activity occurs within the daily life of our trainees, e.g., taking the stairs instead of the elevator. Therefore, we hope, and preliminary data analysis confirms, that trainees are continuing to engage in the nudges not only when they are outside of the actual class but, and this is most important I think, after the class is over. Our hope in designing the program the way we did, was to have the reinforcing impact of the changes, e.g., "Wow, adding a couple of hundred steps to my day really wasn't that difficult and I sleep better as well," occur outside of the classroom, so the "feel good" association that is created is not connected with the class itself but with the trainee's own behavior choices. Here the agent of change is the trainee themselves and not the class or the class instructor; the class simply is a conduit.
I encourage others to post questions as well!
--Dana
Keep up the good work! Our older adults are a precious resource.
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