This practice is focus to the EDERLY POPULATION
Promote the active role of elderly people, improving their quality of life and avoiding their isolation through workshops courses or activities.
Promote the interpersonal relationships and coexistence of the elderly in their community.
Promote socio-cultural, occupational, artistic and recreational activities to prevent situations of physical or cognitive deterioration in the aging process.
Spain is one of the ageing countries in Europe, its expected lifetime increases every year.
In Spain gets attention the dates of elderly in Castilla y León, and specially in the province o León. León has a raised percent of people who are more than 65, this rate is higher in rural areas.
One of the challenges that our occidental society has been proposing since the first of XX century is the importance of elderly people. The fall down of the birth rate and the higher life expectancy has taken many elderly people in our territories.
Because of this situation, from the Service of Animación del CEAS our first objective is traying to “improve active ageing of elder people in rural areas both physically, cognitively, psychologically, and socially, paying special attention to cognitive stimulation.
The beneficiaries are elderly men a women living in rural areas located at the follow municipalities: Santa María del Páamo y Zuáres del Pármo. All of them are Muncipalities less than 20.000 habitants.
Social institutions are Diputación of León and the different municipalities of the territorial demarcation of the CEAS LEÓN II
This intervention with senior people is considered a subproject that is included in the Active Ageing Project: “Knowing Living to Prevent-2021”.
The International Day of Older Persons has been taken as a guiding thread on 1 October.
As regards the Technical Aspects, the project was intended to be executed in person but due to the situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the project was adapted and implemented individually, delivering a workbook to each of the participants to be carried out at home in the period of one month.
The practical exercises of the workbook, are intended for the realisation of fun games to stimulate memory such as: couples games, I see, who is who?crucigrams, chained words, tutti frutti (also called, scattergories, stop, enough, still pencil,…), differences, puzzles, sudokus, mazes, letter soups, dominoes, etc.
Games are one of the activities that are recommended for all stages of life and for older people are especially recommended for their great benefits. In addition, due to the situation of health crisis it has been considered appropriate to work on cognitive stimulation through actions that are pleasant and fun.
A series of exercises were prepared to be carried out individually or grouply (depending on the health situation of the moment) we worked in attention, concentration, orientation, language, calculus, creativity, manual dexterity, praxias, gnosias, etc.
Before moving on to the execution of the activity, they were told what the game consisted of to facilitate the play game.
Since this work on Active Ageing with the groups began in 2015 at CEAS, it is considered that the practice has been successful as it continues over time and it is the participants who express their continuity and satisfaction.
It is considered that the results have been very positive as shown by the interest shown, the demand, the participation, the desire to learn and ask for explanations in any doubt.
All this has helped to ensure continuity of the project over time, maintaining the working groups and the implementation periods of the project, which facilitates its smooth functioning.
Active Ageing projects carried out with elderly people can be considered successful, otherwise we could not continue working in a continuous way as it is being developed.
The participants express their pleasure, satisfaction and motivation because these projects permit them them to leave home, interact with other people, stay active, exercise the mind and perform other activities that alone would not be performed.
All these practices influence their mood. Nowadays that we are carring out theses activities face to face and they say everyday that is a gratifying time.
The workshops on Active Ageing carried out with the elderly, are given by the Community Animator of CEAS because they do not have economic means.
It is the municipalities of the localities where the project is executed that collaborate with the necessary materials and the associations of J/P and women in the cession of places to execute the workshops.
The implementation of active ageing projects targeting older people and in particular this or similar practice has served to:
There has been no obstacle of any kind.
This good practice had to be adapted to the situation caused by COVID-19 and there was no problem.
Due to the good acceptance, participation, demand, interest, etc., it is considered necessary to give continuity to the work being developed and continue to carry out projects of cognitive stimulation with senior.
In order for good practice to be sustainable, it must have a number of features, including:
As stated above, the project does not involve expenditure as it is implemented by the Community Animator of CEAS.
The low material costs associated with the implementation of the project are paid by the municipalities where the project is carried out and the travel of the professional is paid by the institution to which it belongs, Diputación de León.
This good practice could be replicated in any other area of action to do so would require good dissemination, contact with municipality, local and association leaders. Mainly contact with senior people associations with which meetings would be held to explain the project, request their collaboration and encourage participation
Working with elderly people has always been very rewarding for me. It is a collective that accepts the proposals offered to them without any objection, always with good availability and expressing their gratitude. The results have always been satisfactory. All this gives encouragement to continue the projects initiated with this group of people.
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