Hobbies for the elderly

has been something of a concern to me of late. 

I have been going in and out of the residence in which the Senior Cat now lives and my concern is increasing.  I try to visit the Senior Cat at least three times a week, sometimes more often. 

In that time I have come to know something about the other residents and what they spend their days doing. Too many of them are doing nothing. Oh yes they might be staring at a television screen but they are not actually doing anything. 

Now of course some of these people have dementia, perhaps most of them have some form of memory impairment. It might be impossible for them to initiate activities on their own. 

There is a new "lifestyle" or "actitivities" officer, Y.... She is a very nice person and I get on well with her. Yes, I have talked to her more than once. I am aware that she has a very difficult job. We have actually discussed activities that might work more than once. (She knows that the Senior Cat is not in the least bit interested in "footy tipping" or any form of sport. She is also aware that he detests bingo and "indoor bowls". ) 

When I went in yesterday Y... was talking to the Senior Cat.  She was working out what they might do in the next origami class. The origami sessions were the Senior Cat's idea. He's no expert but Y... is. Her paper cranes are models of how it should be done. The Senior Cat's fingers are no longer as nimble as they once were and his eyesight is fading but he can still help Y... plan the steps for the class. As a former teacher he can tell her that some of the steps she was planning will be too big and much more.

After they had finished chatting we discussed quiz questions. The Senior Cat is rather bored by the quiz sessions. He feels he should keep quiet. He is the oldest resident there but, apart from the sport, he can usually answer the questions.  He has told Y... the questions are too simple and I would agree. Even people with a degree of memory loss can often remember things they knew in the past.  I promised to go through the bookshelves here in search of books which might help with questions. 

These things are all very well perhaps. They are cheap to run and that helps too. But there are still far too many empty hours in the day. Too many residents have no resources to fall back on. One woman plays some sort of card game on her mobile phone most of the day. She was "never much of a reader" she told me. At the same time she told me, "There's nothing to do in here."

There is no library there and the mobile library service does not visit there. It is unlikely there would be many people use it. There are no board games or jigsaw puzzles. "Messy" crafts are not encouraged. They were worried about the Senior Cat using some very harmless glue. He is concerned about one of the residents with dementia getting hold of the scissors. 

I thought about all of this too, about the way in which people are not reading, knitting, crocheting, whittling, modelling and more. Yes, part of it has to do with the effort involved in doing those things. More of it however has to do with the lack of stimulation in the surroundings. Often the residents will ask me "What day is it?" Their life has no structure any more.

My late friend N... fought against going into a residence. Like the Senior Cat she was alert and able into her nineties. In her late eighties she had found and written up a new plant she had discovered in a remote part of the state. She corresponded with people around the world.  Eventually she agreed to go but only after she was provided with a high speed internet connection so she could continue doing what she had been doing at home. I would go in to see her and she always had plenty to talk about.  The residence she moved into was not impressed by this. They thought she should be playing bingo and bowls.  

Bingo and bowls might be fun for some people but it seems to me we should be encouraging everyone to develop more hobbies they can continue to do even when they become old and frail... and we need to encourage people to do more reading now so that they have more to think about then.