At Haven Health, we recognize that indoor activities for elderly people in our care are for much more than simply filling time. We believe our activity offerings contribute toward maintaining and enhancing our residents’ physical, cognitive, and emotional health, all adding up to improved quality of life.
Games and puzzles help to stimulate cognitive tasks, like memory and communication, gentle exercise helps maintain flexibility, strength, and balance, and crafts invite a sense of creativity and wonder. Done regularly, these can all help seniors lead more independent, rich lives.
Today, we’ll look at some of the best indoor activities for seniors you can do at home with your loved ones, practice with your loved ones when you visit them in our facilities, and ones that we provide for our residents. We’ll also look at why activities like these are so important.
How Do Indoor Activities Benefit Seniors’ Physical And Mental Health?
Indoor activities, like games, holiday celebrations, crafts, and gentle exercise, all contribute to numerous mental and physical health benefits for seniors in skilled nursing care and for those still residing at home.
Cognitive and physical decline is inevitable as we age, but targeted games and activities for seniors can all delay and reduce the effects.
The mental effects that brain games and activities of this nature can help seniors with are plentiful, including the following:
- Increased confidence
- Reduced anxiety
- Reduced stress
- Improved mood
- Better memory
- A sense of purpose and progression
- Decreased isolation
- Stronger emotional resilience
In addition, physical effects from gentle exercise from games and other light physical activities can be noticeable as well, including:
- Improved coordination
- Improved mobility
- Enhanced cardiovascular and heart health
- Better strength
- Better coordination
Activities such as these help support recovery from illness or injury, whether it be broken bones after a fall or mental challenges after a stroke. Additionally, activities can help seniors connect with others, helping to reduce loneliness.
What Are The Best Indoor Activities For Seniors In Arizona Skilled Nursing Facilities?
The best indoor activities for seniors blend physical movement, togetherness with others, creativity, and cognitive challenge. Most of the activities detailed below can be performed with your loved ones at home, when visiting your loved ones in our facilities, or are provided by our staff.
As always in our facilities, we encourage family members to participate in their loved-one’s care, and as long as it’s safe, to participate in facility activities with loved ones.
Some of our top picks for indoor activities include:
Chair-Based Exercises
Chair exercises are gentle exercises, such as leg lifts, shoulder twists, heel and toe raises, thigh squeezes, and bicep curls, that seniors can do right from their chairs. These types of exercises are not too taxing, but provide crucial benefits, such as mobility and strength.
Crafts And Holiday Celebrations
Crafts and holiday celebrations go together like peanut butter and jelly. Holiday celebrations help connect seniors with traditions, family, and their past, while crafts encourage creativity and self-expression. Consider activities like painting, scrapbooking, and collages to holiday celebrations for extra benefit.
Card, Board, And Other Social Games
Traditional games are a great way to socialize for seniors, but can also have positive cognitive benefits as well. Games such as Uno, Monopoly, and jigsaw puzzles all strengthen the mind. It’s often good for seniors to have a healthy sense of competition as well.
Social Activities
Activities such as karaoke or movie nights, charades, and bingo are all great ways for seniors to connect with each other and their neighbors in our facilities. It’s essential for quality-of-life and wellbeing that seniors don’t become isolated, and social activities can help.
Brain Games
Brain games are excellent choices for seniors who wish to keep their minds sharp. Activities such as Sudoku, crossword puzzles, many video games, trivia games, and Scrabble all keep the brain engaged and supple.
How Does Haven Health Promote Fun Indoor Activities For Seniors In Skilled Nursing?
At Haven Health, the prioritization of gentle and active indoor activities is a priority, not an afterthought. Especially in the hot Arizona summers, when the heat prohibits outdoor activity, we strive to ensure every day is filled with enriched activities for our seniors.
As always, we want to work with families to build trust and stay connected, not just over direct health issues, but for the issues that make life worth living as well. We always encourage family participation when safe and healthy, and our activity offerings are no different.
In addition, we strive to offer a diversity of programs for our seniors that help to stimulate both mental and physical health. Exercise classes, social games, comfortable common rooms, fun outings, and more are all part of our standard offerings to residents.
Contact Haven Health Today For The Best Skilled Nursing In Arizona
If you’re looking for seniors’ skilled nursing in Arizona that recognizes the need for positive enrichment activities, contact Haven Health today. At all of our facilities, indoor activities that stimulate the mind and body are not afterthoughts, they’re critical pieces to our organization.
By selecting the right mix of games, exercise, outings, and social activities, we ensure you or your loved ones are doing the things that make life worth living, even when outside is unbearable. Our staff is the jewel of our organization, and can make anyone feel right at home.
Outside of activities, our skilled medical staff, holistic care, and personalized care plans all add up to the best skilled nursing facilities in Arizona. We’re always happy to give tours or discuss insurance concerns. Give us a call today.
Contact Haven Health For More Information On Skilled Nursing Care And Senior Living In Arizona
Sources:
11 Chair Exercises for Seniors, Older Adults and People With Limited Mobility. (2024).
4 Worthwhile Brain Games for Older Adults. (2024).
Langhammer, B., et al. (2018). The Importance of Physical Activity Exercise among Older People.