Author: Carrie McClellan, Outreach Manager, ElderHelp

Being a recognized partner for Live Well San Diego and a champion for living well, ElderHelp decided to practice what it preached and instituted a Live Well segment at its monthly staff meetings. Dealing with the challenges of low-income seniors every day carries an element of stress and addressing self-care for staff seemed more than warranted.

These brief segments, delivered by a different staff member each month, provided an interlude of attending to “us” in addition to “them.” The presentations have yielded some unusual ideas and suggestions that were not only practical, but gave us food for thought.

Here are some of the self-care strategies and topics the team discussed:

• Floating Tanks - a relatively new experience of floating in salt water pods for relaxation and meditation
• Vitamin C - which is receiving renewed popularity as a potent antioxidant with increasingly diverse uses in health promotion and disease prevention. That educational offering was followed by distribution of home-grown oranges.
• Memory loss - a subject not just for our senior clients, we discussed educational points about what is normal and what more serious, and what foods and activities help your memory.
• Tapping - an innovative tactile solution to relieve anxiety. You tap with your fingertips on different parts of your body while you repeat an affirmation out loud and pay attention to your emotions.
• Zumba - a fun and vigorous exercise to Latin music for fitness and how it helps with stress and your cardio workout.
• The body’s immunity system - especially relevant during peak flu season, we reviewed the foods and activities that boost immunity, as well as what to take for different symptoms for cold, cough and the flu.

Every one of the 18 staff members has become more mindful of healthy habits and stress reduction. The team has informal conversations in the office about some of the suggestions. Staff were offered free massages one afternoon, and have organized quarterly relaxation and fun get-togethers. All of this is in response to ElderHelp's new commitment to living well.