From virtual singing to walking groups, Dartmouth Health’s programs for older adults enhance health
Food for Your Soul: Reading Poetry Together. Get Hooked on Walking. Virtual Morning Sing. How to Eat to Improve Our Resilience to Stress. These classes are among hundreds offered by the Dartmouth Health Aging Resource Center in Lebanon, N.H., each year.
The Aging Resource Center, part of the health system’s Geriatric Center of Excellence, offers free educational classes, support and services to improve the minds, bodies and spirits of older adults and their families. Programs and support groups are held in person and virtually.
Older adults can take a class or series of classes to improve their balance, get help using their iPhone, participate in a morning virtual sing or in-person singing group, write poetry, learn strategies for coping with symptoms of chronic disease and get tips for eating healthy when money is tight — and much more. In addition, they can access the Aging Resource Center to simply relax, read, browse the internet or enjoy exhibits by local artists who also are older adults.
The center also hosts a Memory Café for individuals with dementia and their caregivers, which is organized by Dartmouth medical students and an attending physician. The café provides social, cognitive and physical activities for patients, including live music, arts and crafts, and chair exercises, and offers informational sessions for caregivers.
One older adult with Parkinson’s disease noted, “We often feel like we’re on our own fighting the progression of this disease. We’re excited to have access to this support group and are looking forward to attending future sessions.”
A Food for Your Soul program participant observed, “Reading and discussing poetry biweekly lifts our spirits and engages our minds and emotions in new, challenging and inspiring ways.”