Pursuing ‘wellness’ in care
Preventing illness - being proactive
about an active and healthy life.
Together we will….
• Consider what wellness means for us all.
• Think about how we can pursue wellness
• Consider what wellness means for those we support
and care for.
• Hear about resources and programmes to help.
• Hear about an example of supporting people who
experience services to live well
• Commitment and action - What happens next?
Interactive and ACTIVE!
So what’s it all about?
Wellness - being in good physical and mental health, in body
and mind especially as a result of deliberate effort!
How do we keep well?
Resilience - ‘to bounce back’ The power to return to the original
form after being bent, compressed or stretched!
Reserves of resilience.
How do we build and retain resilience?
Flourish – to be successful and prosper.
To be in a vigorous state.
To grow luxuriantly or thrive in growth like a plant.
What allows us to flourish?
Wellness thoughts….
Concept of ‘wellness’ moves us from managing
disease into prevention and being proactive
about keeping well.
Choices determine whether we’re living healthy
balanced lives!
Deliberate effort!
Seven dimensions of wellness (ICAA)
Intellectual – pursuits which are
creative and stimulating
Physical – lifestyle choices to keep
us well/independant
Social – interacting with others
Spiritual – meaning and
purpose/personal values
Vocational – paid or unpaid work
using and developing skills
Emotional – awareness
of/directing feelings – create
balance in life
Environmental – appreciating
your surroundings/active
lifestyle/taking care of
Thinking time
1. What do you need in order to experience
wellness?
2. What could you proactively do to improve
your feeling of wellness?
3. What about those you care for?
What about wellness for those we care for?
People can significantly improve the quality of their later years by staying
active and fully engaged in life.
(ICAA)
How do we know that?
• Research evidence is incontrovertible in terms of benefits.
• Specific benefits BUT huge impact on general health and well being.
• Risks around extended periods of sedentary behaviour – more recent
research on this aspect.
• Falls prevention – 3 times more likely to fall in a care home. Inactivity
increases risk.
Being active and engaged also:
• Increases engagement,
• improves confidence, resilience and control,
• reduces anxiety and depression as well as reducing
symptoms of disease,
• improves function and helps maintain independence.
• And we age and live well.
‘All our years should be alive and brimming with healthful purpose’
Keeping physically well
Note!
Improved physical health directly impacts on our emotional
health and sense of peace day by day, how we interact with one
another and perform our occupations.
Dr Mary Knudsen, researcher, Canada
Care…About Physical Activity improvement programme
Older people on the move in the care sector
Care…about physical activity (CAPA)
Launched 2014 and distributed to all care homes for older
people in Scotland.
What is it?
A self improvement tool to support staff to enable older people to increase their levels
of physical activity
What’s in it?
1. A booklet with an introduction to the resource, introduction to physical activity in
care homes and how to make improvements, the physical activity self assessment tool
and guidance for its use and a description of the three key principles to promote
physical activity
2. A DVD to support implementation of the resource pack
3. Make Every Move Count – a pocket guide to active living
3. A call to action poster
4. Physical activity and self assessment tools
An app is available to download which provides education and awareness and supports the
implementation of the resource from the app store
Early evaluation of impact 2015 – starting to change culture
Being Physically Active will make a difference
…its not the same as planned exercise or group activities: it is
about the small, simple things we can add into daily life that
makes the difference and makes it easy to be active.
Mary
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Mary lives in rural Orkney on a farm
with her husband Bob
Mary is 89 and has Parkinsons
she broke her hip and shoulder as a result of a fall
shoulder not operated on due to her frailty
4 times a day care package
physically poor/cognitively good
husband cognitively poor, physically good
Make every move count - stand aid transfer
• Preparation to move
• Widen your feet a bit to improve your stance
• Grab the rail and stretch to open up your chest, round your
shoulders to stretch between blades.
• Pull shoulders back and down.
• Lift your head up to give a good stretch at front of neck.
• Tip chin down to stretch back of neck and gently from side to
side
Make every move count - stand aid transfer
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The transfer
As you rise from chair push down weight into heels
Tuck in bottom and engage quads and glutes
Stretch spine as much as you can
Hold as long as possible
Transfer into alternative seating or commode
You lift up your own feet and sit forward to have sling
removed.
Make every move count – outcomes!
• Progress
• Became an automatic part of the process which the client
initiated herself.
• Commenting its “oh its right fine to have a stretch”
• Bend back toes when sitting and stretch out legs to stretch
• Neck stretches to the side to side to relieve discomfort and
pain in her neck and head.
Housing support
• Encouraging movement throughout day
• Move from easy chair to dining chair for coffee/ tea and for
meals.
• Re-assessment by OT,
• Can recognise cognitive deterioration when following
instructions
Aspirations and commitments
1. What do those you support need from you in
order to experience wellness?
2. What one thing will you commit to doing
tomorrow to help you and those you support to
live well?
3. Is there someone you need to talk to in order to
help make this happen?