The COVID-19 pandemic has been tough on all of us. We’ve adjusted our lives and daily activities due to lockdowns, social distancing and other precautionary measures in an effort to stay safe and do our part in stopping the spread in our community.

This has been particularly tough on our elders.

Foundation Health Partners operates the Denali Center under a care model known as the Eden Alternative, which promotes a homelike atmosphere. The sixth principal of the Eden Alternative emphasizes that meaningless activity corrodes the human spirit. When Denali Center went into lock down for the safety of our residents in late February of 2020, our activities team was presented with a great challenge: How do we keep our residents active while still keeping them safe?

We had to get creative, and we had to get virtual.

We’ve encouraged virtual family visits through Facetime or Zoom for some of our residents. We use YouTube to explore things like underground cities on “Arm Chair Travel” Wednesdays. And in a normal year we typically celebrate Elvis Presley’s birthday with the “King” performing live for our residents, this past year we celebrated with Elvis Karaoke and an Elvis YouTube concert.

If you’ve been racking your brain on activities you can to with your elder loved one, check out some of these ideas.

Virtual
If you do not live with your elder to provide care, or they are not within your social bubble, consider some of these fun ideas to stay active virtually.

Virtual Family Movie Night

Plan an evening where family members from all over the country or world can gather virtually to watch a movie.  Set up grandma and grandpa with a streaming device, and teach them how to use it, you will have a blast! Have everyone download or stream the same movie, pick a time and have everyone watch at that time. As an added feature use Teleparty, a free app that synchronizes video playback and adds group chat to platforms like Netflix, Disney and Hulu.   

Armchair Travel

Get out and see the world from the comfort, and safety of home.  Have you and grandpa always dreamed of seeing the Grand Canyon? Use Google Earth to take you there virtually. Google Arts and Culture is a great way to virtually explore everything from the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC to the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France.  

Play Trivia Games

Connect online to play virtual trivia games through apps like Kahoot or Jackbox games.  These apps allow you to create trivia games customized to your family, so you can challenge one another on trivia facts like who was the first child married; when did grandma graduate high school; or what year did dad join the Army? You can find other ideas for trivia questions online through Random Trivia Generator.

Virtual Games

AARP offers a host of online games designed specifically for older adults, as well as all the old favorites like solitaire, word search and eggz. Have the whole family register for a gaming account, challenge one another and brag about your wins!   

In-Person 
If you live with your elder to provide care, or they are within your social bubble, consider some of these fun ideas to stay active together.

Exercise together

Physical activity has a positive effect on the health and cognitive function of our seniors. Encourage stretching on a daily basis. Get them out for a walk if possible, and if it’s too cold outside to walk, stay indoors to get in those steps. Sit and be fit is a great YouTube channel that aims to improve the health and wellness of older adults. Choose fun exercises each week and do them together!  You can also search YouTube for whatever you feel inspired to do:  Senior tai chi, yoga, drumming, dancing- even Cha Cha, Hula and Line dancing.  You could refine the search adding “chair” to your topic- such as “senior chair hula.” It’s important to move, it’s important to laugh.

Sort through old photos and keepsakes

We all have those albums or boxes of photos that we haven’t looked at in years. That’s a perfect way to keep the cognitive cylinders firing for older people, especially those living with memory issues. Another activity that is not only fun, but a great way to pass down family traditions, is to build a family recipe binder together. Help mom or grandma find and organize all of her family recipes, and combine them into a binder that you can pass down to your children someday.   

Explore the world together with live cameras

Spend time together exploring the world through EarthCam’s network of live cameras.  See what’s happening in your favorite tropical destination or other tourist hot spots like the Times Square in New York City!  You can also check out the brown bears at Katmai National Park when they arrive in summer to gorge on salmon. There are also many other live cameras to be found at explore.com.

Read together

This may seem obvious or “low tech” but take it back to the basics.  You can either read aloud to your elderly family member or loved one, or if they are up to it, read aloud together. Alternate paragraphs and enjoy the story together!