This morning, I watched with joy, as our members laughed their way through another exercise session. Our Activity Coordinator uses humor to engage the seniors and they happily participate in exercise, despite their functional limitations and pain level. At the VNSNY CHOICE Adult Day Center, we use humor to engage seniors in all types of activities, and here are some reasons why it works!
- Some seniors may not be comfortable participating in activities that are new to them, but humor loosens them up, opens them up to trying something new, and allows staff to ease them into unfamiliar activities.
- Humor reduces stress, anxiety and depression.
- Pain management — humor takes their mind off pain/ provides a distraction to pain.
- Humor is important for staff and caregivers too — important for stress reduction and gives them a way to connect with the seniors.
- Humor and laughter unify the group — we’ve noticed this even with multilingual populations!
There’s such a wide variation in seniors’ abilities and humor puts everyone at the same level. So, next time you want to encourage a senior to participate in any type of activity, use some humor and see the magic that can happen!
