Assisted Living Is the Perfect Place to Make New Friends
As we age, social isolation can become an issue. Our neighbors move away, our children grow old and move into homes of their own, and we are left with unfamiliar faces around us. Growing older also means there is a potential for mobility issues that could make it more difficult to leave the home and build new friendships. By moving to an assisted living community, seniors can more easily make new connections and stay socially active.
Staying socially engaged helps keep us both physically and mentally healthy. Maintaining a healthy and balanced diet, incorporating regular exercise, and keeping a regular sleep schedule, together will make for a strong foundation of health for any person, but the piece that pulls all of those things together is socialization. The assisted living experts at Solterra Senior Living discuss below how moving to a Lakeside assisted living community can help your senior loved one make new friends more easily.
Regular Socialization Can Help Keep Seniors Healthy
There are many cognitive health benefits to be gained with increased socialization among seniors. Not only will maintaining friendships help keep the mind sharp with a positive outlook on life, but keeping socially active can even decrease the risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. Having or making new friends and staying active with them can help create a life full of meaning and purpose.
Oftentimes, seniors will feel restricted by their physical limitations, which leaves them feeling like they need to hide in their own room and have little to no interactions with others. Having friends who are of similar age and going through the same life stages can help increase self-esteem, and socializing can help you stay active, even if you have mobility issues.
Moving to a place like Solterra can help alleviate those feelings of shame and embarrassment, since the people living in the community could also struggle with similar limitations. Having friends to talk to about the frustrations of aging and the struggles that come with age can help with the negative emotions that seniors can sometimes feel.
Assisted Living Can Help Promote Socialization in Seniors
It’s easier to maintain a socially-active lifestyle when surrounded by people your own age and friendly staff who are ready to help in an assisted living community. Especially for seniors who have family and friends who no longer live close by, loneliness can set in quickly and can have an effect on their mental health. This mental state will make it even more difficult for your loved one to find the motivation or energy to make new friends and connections outside the home. Living in a Lakeside assisted living community means having easy and attainable access to group activities with the endless possibilities of making conversations with people and building new friendships.
Planned Group Activities Keep Residents Engaged
Assisted living communities offer their residents a variety of group activities that they can elect to join in on. These group activities are a great opportunity for seniors to meet others in their community and have a chance to chat and get to know one another while doing something fun and possibly new. Not only do these activities help promote a socially active lifestyle, but they can help improve mobility, increase mental cognition, and help keep residents in a positive state of mind.
Residents in an assisted living community have the option of joining various group activities, such as dance classes that will incorporate movements geared towards seniors, arts and crafts classes that may include painting, pottery, knitting, or other various crafts, scholarly events that include book clubs, poetry readings, and creative writing courses, etc. The list of available group activities is always changing and growing to keep residents engaged.
There are also group outings for those residents who enjoy day trips out into the neighborhood. Having easily accessible transportation at an assisted living community makes getting around town attainable for those who have physical limitations and may have been previously homebound.
Make New Friends While Enjoying On-Site Amenities
At Solterra Senior Living, our focus is ensuring our residents get to live a life filled with meaning and purpose. With resident access to many various on-site amenities, being active, social, and making new friendships becomes the norm within our Lakeside assisted living community.
Restaurant-Style Dining
In our dining rooms, numerous chef-prepared meals can be shared over good conversation between residents. We host food events in our dining rooms for people to enjoy as a community, allowing our residents time to get to know each other over a variety of tasty cuisines provided by on-site chefs. Residents are invited to share their own favorite recipes, as well as make suggestions on meals they would love to have prepared in the future.
Media Room
In our media rooms, residents can meet up for a movie night, host a game night using the various available board games and card decks, or just sit down in front of the TV to enjoy some rest and relaxation with a friend or two. There are computers available for residents to use as well, for those who enjoy some social media time or like surfing the internet on one of our community computers. The media room is a great place to relax in a group setting with friends.
Outdoor Courtyard and Walking Paths
For those who enjoy outdoor time, nothing beats taking a calming stroll through one of our scenic pathways together or sitting and relaxing outside while enjoying some fresh air, sunshine, and good conversation with friends. There are also garden terraces available to enjoy that overlook lush courtyards, creating a wonderful place to sit and sip a cup of tea or coffee and take a load off.
If you are looking for an assisted living community that offers your senior loved one compassionate care in a safe and nurturing environment with a focus on living well, contact Solterra Senior Living today.