Side Effects Of Isolation On Seniors

By: Dr. Beth Templin

At HouseFit, our entire mission is to help older adults stay healthy and active enough to continue living in their own homes and living the life they want to.

At this time, the main concern for many is protecting themselves and preventing exposure to Coronavirus, which I fully support. It's one of the main reasons I decided to temporarily close our in-person care and do our part to help prevent further spread.
​
With all of the extra precautions being put in place to slow the spread of the virus, my biggest fear is that many of the people we serve are going to experience a second-order consequence of this pandemic. ​

We know the recommendation is to practice social distancing and limit interactions to avoid spreading the virus and getting sick. This means that many of you will not be leaving your house for the next several weeks or months except to go out for essentials like groceries and medications.

As a result, physical activity will decrease. I fear this lack of regular exercise for a large population of seniors will develop into unnecessary weakness and loss of independence.

Another area of concern during this crisis is making sure you get adequate nutrition. Many of you will be eating frozen dinners out of necessity and convenience and not eating many fresh fruits and vegetables.

I worry that without supplying your body with proper nutrition you will begin to lose muscle mass and strength and your immune system will not be as robust as it needs to be to fight off infections.

In short, I am worried about what could happen to the aging community as we weather this storm. I've been trying to find the best way to support our aging community during these uncertain times. I want to continue to deliver excellent services even without being able to see you in person.
    
The best way we can achieve this is by being available to you online and offering exercise classes and informational workshops. The other way is to help support your nutrition during this time.
We have been working very hard to get everything set up. We started our online classes on March 23rd and are offering a variety of options including Tai Chi, Balance, HouseFit, Chair, and Floor.  For full descriptions of each class and a current schedule, you can visit our Online Exercise Class page.

We created classes that will challenge people of all different fitness levels, with minimal equipment needed to participate.  In addition, we have partnered with a nutrition company to help ensure you have good nourishment to promote good health and decrease trips to the grocery store. You can read more about our nutrition program inside this newsletter.

We are honored to be able to continue to support you during this time and we look forward to when we can open our doors back up and see you again in person.