For senior citizens, life can sometimes get boring. After retirement, people who have worked all their lives might find themselves a bit lost, and with time spent with family and friends often reduced, it can be lonely, too.
If you're someone who runs or works in a nursing home, these problems will be only too familiar. Aside from healthcare, keeping residents happy and mentally stimulated is one of the most important parts of senior care. A simple way to keep residents entertained is to provide a good supply of wooden jigsaw puzzles.
Puzzles aren't just entertainment, either. They provide a host of benefits to seniors, such as the following examples.
Manual dexterity
Older people don't always use their hands very much, and with conditions like arthritis being fairly common, the joints can begin to seize up.
Regularly completing jigsaw puzzles helps people to maintain their manual dexterity, as picking up and positioning the pieces works like gentle exercise. Try and provide wooden jigsaws rather than cardboard ones, as the pieces are a bit easier to work with.
Improved cognitive ability
As people get older, mental processing power can slow a bit, but completing puzzles has been shown to help with this problem. It can improve the memory and slow down any cognitive decline.
Puzzles have even been shown to slow down the onset of dementia, and may even reduce the risk of people developing the condition.
Better visual perception
To a certain extent, visual perception is like a muscle that performs better when it's exercised. Concentrating on finding the right puzzle pieces makes a great workout for the eyes, and it also helps keep the mental perception of colours and shapes sharp and functioning well.
For residents with particularly poor eyesight, you can get puzzles with larger pieces to help them get started.
A chance for social interaction
People often like to do jigsaws alone, and that's fine. But they don't have to be done this way, and puzzles make great team activities, too.
Encouraging residents to work in pairs or larger groups to complete jigsaw puzzles is an effective way to increase social interaction and lead to new friendships forming. This means people will feel less lonely, which helps increase happiness.
Great relaxation
Sitting quietly and completing a jigsaw puzzle is an almost meditative experience, so it really helps people relax. This makes sleep easier, reduces depression and stress levels, and can even contribute to reducing cognitive decline.
Share26 February 2018
As a little girl, I was always fascinated with the work my nana did with wool. She loved to knit and crochet, and the results were either given to family members or donated to charity. I now have the same love of wool crafts and have created this blog to share my passion. I will post about choosing the right wool, different types of needs, and projects you can make when short on time. Many hobbies fall away in popularity as they are not taught to younger generations, but I want to do my part to make sure wool crafts do not fall into that category.
