Retirement is a key milestone in a senior citizens life. One is used to a set routine and active life pre-retirement, and it is often challenging to adjust into a post-retirement roles. Most adults were busy spending about 6-8 hours in office and suddenly they are faced with “what to do now?” This question is not limited to the working people but even homemakers who are not officially retired, also feel the gap once their domestic responsibilities reduce. Typically homemakers spent their time looking after the house, bringing up the kids, their education and providing meals for everyone etc. Once the kids are off to college or married their days too become unoccupied.
Continue reading “An insight into how typical Indian senior citizens spend their time”
The first two weeks of this year gave me the opportunity to observe and co-facilitate the rare kind of work that Samvedna Senior Care, located in Gurgaon, India, does in its Cognitive Wellness Programme. Culturally and contextually adapted from the evidence-based (Woods, Aguirre, Spector & Orrell, 2012) Cognitive Stimulation Therapy, what I found most remarkable about it is the philosophical paradigm used by the facilitators. Indeed it provides space for the participants to engage and be mentally stimulated, which has been found to delay the progression of dementia. However, it has an even more important aim: to improve their quality of life.