Wellness Coaching Program Spreads to 12 States Javascript must be enabled to use this site. Please enable Javascript in your browser and try again. × Search search POPULAR SEARCHES SUGGESTED LINKS Join AARP for just $9 per year when you sign up for a 5-year term. Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. Leaving AARP.org Website You are now leaving AARP.org and going to a website that is not operated by AARP. A different privacy policy and terms of service will apply.
Wellness Coaching Program Spreads to 12 States
It helps residents at retirement communities get exercise and avoid depression
The wellness coaches help set physical, social, intellectual and spiritual goals. Getty Images ’s office with her walker. This year she endured a hernia operation and two emergency room visits for heart problems, and she’s losing her hearing. But she told her coach she’d achieved her annual goals, including attending her grandson’s wedding in China. Lipsky spent two months doing leg curls and riding a stationary bike for a 10-day trip to China, with an aide. Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. “It was absolutely divine,” she told coach Susan Flashner-Fineman, who works at the Orchard Cove retirement community in Canton, Mass. Lipsky’s check-ins with Flashner-Fineman are part of Vitalize 360, a program that Orchard Cove started eight years ago with the Kendal nonprofit senior living organization in Pennsylvania. It has spread to 35 communities in 12 states, reaching 2,600 adults. When residents arrive at Orchard Cove, a coach measures their health in an hour-long session, assessing problems like . Then residents meet with their coach every three months. The coaches help set physical, social, intellectual and spiritual goals. Atul Gawande, a physician and author of Being Mortal, calls Vitalize 360 “transformative.” It recognizes that “even as you may have health issues and frailty and the difficulties that can come with aging … people have lives worth living.” Since it started, the proportion of residents who exercise at least three times a week has increased from 30 to 77 percent, and one study found participants felt significantly less depressed. AARP Membership — $12 for your first year when you sign up for Automatic Renewal Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. AARP VALUE & MEMBER BENEFITS See more Health & Wellness offers > See more Flights & Vacation Packages offers > See more Finances offers > See more Health & Wellness offers > SAVE MONEY WITH THESE LIMITED-TIME OFFERS