Home Care in Etobicoke features a study that shows that older adults are most concerned about losing the ability to get around.

Losing the ability to get around is a big concern for seniors, and also a big concern of the adult children who care for them. This is according to a national survey of seniors and adult children commissioned by Home Instead Senior Care, a seniors’ care provider with 25 locations across Canada. Lack of activity can lead to a downward spiral of poor health resulting in frailty, which is a condition that threatens the mind, body and social life of older adults, according to senior-care experts.

“We see many seniors who are trapped in their homes because they are too weak to perform the activities they must do to remain safe and independent,” said Brenda Enright of Home Instead Senior Care in Etobicoke. “That’s why staying active is a prerequisite for healthy aging, but addressing these issues can be a challenge for many families.”

The national Home Instead Senior Care survey of Canadian seniors aged 65 and older found that the two top challenges seniors face are: maintaining their independence (66 percent rated this no. 1) and staying physically active (65 percent rated this no. 1). Other challenges such as managing finances, eating a healthy diet, and keeping socially engaged, while all important, were further down the list.

The problem of inactive seniors has prompted Home Instead Senior Care to develop a public awareness program designed to help keep seniors engaged and fit, and to fight frailty arising from inactivity. The program includes Get Mom Moving activity cards and the website www.getmommoving.com.

Erin Billowits, owner of Vintage Fitness, is dedicated to energizing the lives of the 50-and-up group with physical activity, and does workshops for Home Instead Senior Care. The older adults she works with have such ailments as osteoarthritis, Parkinson’s, and other mobility challenges. Billowits says less than ten per cent of Canadian seniors do any type of strength training – even with very light weights – and that such activity provides the greatest benefit.

“For many older adults, being active is the difference between living independently and living in a long-term care facility,” she says. “When working with older adults, we stress that they have an emotional goal and a physical goal. For example, one woman didn’t have enough flexibility to paint her own toenails and another was fearful about not being able to get up off the floor after a fall, so this becomes the goal.”

Home Care Etobicoke ON for seniors and elderly choosing to stay home instead. Please call us at 416.239.2200.