Description

We are in the midst of pilot testing a curriculum aimed at transforming the befriending experience for seniors.

If you encounter these issues in engaging seniors, we’ve created this curriculum specially for you:

• Difficulty breaking the ice with seniors
• Tedious to constantly search for activities to engage
• Lack of revelant localised activities for seniors

According to a study by the University College London, a senior’s perception of how he or she enjoys life affects his or her physical functions.

Seniors found to rank highly on enjoyment of life are less likely to develop two or more impaired activities of daily living. 4.4% of seniors who ranked high in enjoyment of life had two or more impaired activities of daily living, as compared to 16.8% of seniors who ranked low in enjoyment of life.

Through the curriculum, we hope to help seniors enjoy life better by fostering greater friendships between volunteers, therapy assistants, nurses and seniors.

The befriending curriculum comprises of activity sheets that befrienders can closely follow to engage seniors.

The activity sheets will:

• Be a step-by-step guide for befrienders to follow through
• Offer a programme that lasts approximately two hours
• Include a list of materials needed to facilitate programme

An example of elements within the activity sheet:

Programme

1. Breaking Seniors up into groups and forming group names (15mins)

2. Story telling – Showing seniors a photo and encouraging them to tell a story behind the picture. If the conversation doesn’t flow naturally, ask seniors questions to get the conversation going (15 mins)

3. Chair exercises – Seniors to follow a chair exercises video. Befrienders to guide them through the workout (25 mins)

4. Karaoke – Befrienders to sing 3- 4 old songs with seniors and encourage seniors to replace certain lyrics with hand actions for a more exciting experience (20 mins)

5. Hands On activity – Befrienders to guide seniors through a popiah making activity where they get to wrap popiah with already prepared ingredients (20mins)

6. Huahee game – Befrienders to put four kueh cards on the table. Seniors are to memorise the positions of the different kuehs. They are then given a small piece of each kueh to taste while blindfolded. After the taste test, Befrienders to guide seniors in picking out the right kueh card blindfolded. (15 mins)

*All content such as songs, photos, video links will be provided

—————————————————————————–

As we are in the pilot phases for this curriculum, we are not charging for this programme. We are looking for interested volunteers or people who engage seniors to partner use for our pilot in Nov 2018.

Please get in touch with Christel Goh at Christel@playhuahee.com if you’re interested in the curriculum.