Summerside Tribune March 2024

Andrews of Stratford resident Wanda Ings reacts to getting a rose Valentine’s Day week. Kent Building Supplies donated flowers

cards to all our P.E.I. homes

celebration of Valentine’s Day.

UPDATE FROM SUMMERSIDE

Dear family members and friends of Andrews of Summerside,

February was a great month at our home Residents took part in exercise, games, enjoyed live music and celebrated Valentine’s Day with a special meal

Annelize and our dietary team did an amazing job with Valentine’s food and decorations We also wanted to extend a heartfelt thank you to Kent Building Supplies for donating flowers and cards It made our residents feel very special

This month we are looking forward to celebrating International Women’s Day, St Patrick’s Day and Easter Our residents are going to have a lot of fun

Wishing you all a wonderful start to spring

Sincerely,

- Kim

KIM JAY, RN : DIRECTOR OF CARE

Team member Laura MacArthur, an LPN, and resident Anna Doucette share a laugh while walking to lunch at Andrews of Summerside

Our homes were bustling the week of Valentine’s Day with teas, special meals and lots of live music. Andrews of Charlottetown held a Valentine’s Day tea, featuring finger sandwiches, tarts, live music and dancing.

Andrews of Stratford celebrated twice during Valentine’s Day. One February 13, residents enjoyed a Valentine’s tea and then on Valentine’s Day, residents celebrated with a meal of baconwrapped beef roulade, mashed potatoes, vegetables and straweberry flan for dessert.

In addition to our home celebrations, Kent Building Supplies donated flowers and cards to our residents at all five of our P.E.I. homes.

Residents at Andrews of Summerside, Parkhill and Park West celebrated Valentine’s Day with a sweetheart lunch, live music and crafts. Residents at all three homes were also gifted flowers and cards from Kent Building Supplies.

‘There’s no expiry date’

Andrews activity directors attend information session on strength training for seniors

“You don’t use it, you lose it.”

That was the core message for Andrews’ activity directors at a recent information session on strength training for seniors hosted by Jason Mosher, owner and operator of Naturally Fit gym in Charlottetown, P.E.I.

Jason, who has an extensive history in strength sports as well as working as a group trainer, personal trainer and fascial stretch therapist, spent an afternoon in early February guiding our activity directors through a series of exercises and how to incorporate them into their exercise programs for residents

He said for most seniors the goal of strength training is to maintain physical independence

“We’re not going to get hypertrophy, which is recruiting more muscle fiber,” Jason said “We’re just trying not to lose what we had With strength training, we ’ re not talking about going and deadlifting 800 lbs when you ’ re 80 years old We’re talking about being able to pull your socks up on your own ”

That loss of mobility and independence is an experience Jason understands professionally as well as personally Over the course of his career, he’s trained everyone from high-performance athletes to stroke survivors and people recovering from surgery But after a fall from a 17-foot ladder in 2022, he had to build his own body back up

“Broke both my arms, smashed my head really bad,” he said

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Naturally Fit owner Jason Mosher poses inside his Charlottetown gym. Jason recently gave a free information session on strength training for seniors to Andrews’ activity directors.

“Torn bicep, torn shoulder, torn pec, torn abductor, both knees, both ankles, ribs I had five herniated discs in my back My neck was pretty near broken but I’ve corrected pretty much all of that. It really gave me a lot of time to dissect a lot of my training.”

For Jason, the injury reinforced the importance of having a strong physical foundation.

“You slip on some ice, strength training and mobility training will allow you to recover from that slip,” he said. “If you ’ re stiff and fragile you ’ re going down and you ’ re going to break your hip.”

Exercises he recommends for seniors starting out include chair squats, offset step-ups, weighted core twists and offset farmer carries. All of these can be done with as little weight as 1 or 2 lbs and can be modified depending on the person ’ s current mobility and strength levels.

“Heavy for you can be way too heavy for me, ” he said “You want to go very minimal at first and when that’s super easy, then you increase We’re going to start with very basic movements and see where our recovery is As we age, it’s not so much about ‘I feel strong,’ it’s that I don’t recover as well You have to keep that as a factor ”

Annelize Malan, activity director at Andrews of Summerside attended the information session and will be expanding her residents’ current exercise routine to include more strength training

“My goal is to introduce it to residents who want to do a bit more, ” she said “It’s something that they’ve never done or haven’t done in the last number of years There are some people who’ve never lifted a weight in their lives ”

While a majority of residents prefer to do exercises seated, Annelize hopes to improve their confidence over the long term

“Getting them to do a little bit more and getting the confidence in standing up and holding onto a chair or doing exercise next to their chair,” would be a realistic goal for a lot of her residents

Sharon Woods-Bryenton, activity director at Andrews of Stratford, already had strength training elements in her fitness classes but will be adding more going forward

“It’s just so important for our seniors to have good core strength and balance,” she said “The more we can do to help them build that or maintain that strength, the better ”

While many people are hesitant about starting strength training as a senior, Jason said there’s no age limit

“My oldest client was 92 years old, after a stroke,” he said “There’s no expiry date You can start at any time but you have to start with reasonable expectations There’s going to be atrophy There’s going to be weakness But you ’ re getting these things fired up Start any time You want to get out of bed? Start.”

Jason guides activity directors through a series of strength exercises for seniors.

ABOVE & BEYOND FEBRUARY WINNER

Every month our team and residents recognize one team member for showing exceptional care

JUDY SHAW : SUMMERSIDE JOINED IN 2021

Judy was recognized for going above and beyond

Our above and beyond winner for February is Judy Shaw

Judy is a hard-working housekeeper who loves seeing residents happy and taking care of our home

Judy started working at Andrews of Summerside three years ago Prior to joining us, she worked as a cook for seniors

For her, helping people is the most rewarding part of her job

“Just to see the residents happy is a big thing for me. I love working with seniors,” she said “I like how I feel when I go home everyday knowing I can make a difference ”

In her free time, Judy likes to read, take walks, ride her bike and spend time with her friends

Take a look at some of our activities planned for this month!

MARCH

GAMES

Sudoku

The object of the puzzle is to fill the remaining squares, using all the numbers 1–9 exactly once in each row, column, and the nine 3 × 3 subgrids

Community Cash 50/50

Weekly 50/50 draw in support of support not for profit groups including Murphy s Pharmacies Community Centre and the Holland College Athletics Department Anyone can play for just $2/week