Apple Magazine - Fall 2017

“Attention must be paid!” shouts the 12-member cast of We Decide as the play ends. The recent production by GeriActors & Friends, an intergenerational theatre company, explores how aging involves letting go.

The play’s main message is that older adults deserve respect and are capable of making tough decisions about their futures, such as whether to move into a long-term care facility.

Formed in 2001, GeriActors is based at the Seniors Association of Greater Edmonton. The group includes older adults and students from the University of Alberta and local high schools.

Members write and perform original plays about attitudes toward aging and offer outreach theatre programs to seniors across the city. Community connections

Social activity benefits our health

WRITTEN BY DOUG HORNER

Janet Fast, a professor of human ecology at the U of A, studied GeriActors for a research project on health and creative aging. She says the troupe’s older members feel they’re keeping their minds active by learning and creating stories. “They’re also making huge contributions, not just to the young people they’re working with, but to other older people.” The sense of belonging the group fosters is an essential attribute.

Research links social activity to health.

Spending time with others can prevent loneliness and depression and help people weather changes to their health, income, living situation and social circle.

Fast says it doesn’t matter what people
do as long as they engage with other
people. “The main message that comes
from the research on social engagement
with older adults is that it needs to be
something that is meaningful to them.”
It’s simple: a rich social life comes
from satisfying activities that connect
people to people, whether it’s taking a
soapstone carving class, volunteering at
the food bank, hosting a radio show or
learning a new computer program at the
local library. “The number of alternatives
and opportunities that are evolving are
almost unlimited,” Fast says.

Here are just a few ways older adults can connect with others in their communities. Visit seniors.alberta.ca for a full directory of the more than 300 seniors centres across Alberta.