0:02
good morning everyone i'm amy friesen
0:04
and this is artful aging with amy
0:06
grandparents day is coming up so what
0:09
better time to talk about grandparents
0:11
and all the great ways that they add
0:14
value and love to all of our lives as
0:16
someone who's been around seniors for
0:19
the better part of my life i'm very used
0:21
to talking and interacting with seniors
0:24
and actually have much easier times
0:26
doing that than with my own age group
0:29
however there are definitely those of
0:31
you who haven't had that much exposure
0:33
who are estranged or the rest in between
0:37
today i wanted to discuss ways that we
0:39
can take it upon ourselves to have
0:41
better communication more enjoyment and
0:44
make lasting memories with the seniors
0:46
and the grandparents in our lives karina
0:49
stickle has been a recreation therapist
0:51
for 18 years and works specifically with
0:54
older adults and that is the host of
0:56
engaged and rec podcasts she interviews
0:59
individuals and organizations that
1:02
provide resources and tools to
1:04
recreation therapists and activity
1:06
professionals along with introducing
1:08
listeners to seasoned professionals
1:10
karina also speaks to
1:12
relatable and many hilarious experiences
1:15
that you've definitely encountered while
1:17
working with older adults in their real
1:19
life stories from the rec desks which is
1:21
something that i'm very interested in
1:23
because i think that everybody in our
1:24
profession has a lot of stories so
1:27
welcome karina thanks so much for
1:28
joining us today
1:30
hello i'm so excited to be here it's
1:33
funny because i'm usually on the other
1:35
side of this asking the questions so i'm
1:38
i'm excited thanks for having me
1:40
absolutely i'm going to ask you all the
1:41
questions and i said to karina before we
1:45
started our show today i said we come
1:47
from very similar backgrounds so i feel
1:49
like we'll have a lot to discuss
1:51
specifically if we have time let's get
1:53
into some of those interesting stories
1:55
from the rec decks that's yeah
1:57
absolutely
1:58
we all have them but krita can you tell
2:00
us why did you first become involved in
2:03
recreation therapy and is there a reason
2:05
that you tend to gravitate towards
2:07
seniors as opposed to another population
2:11
yeah i mean i had the opportunity after
2:13
high school to go and travel across
2:15
canada and volunteer at different places
2:18
and one of my placements was in
2:21
long-term care in a memory care unit
2:24
actually and that was my first real
2:26
experience other than with my
2:27
grandparents um that i was able to
2:29
really interact with people and learn
2:32
all about
2:34
long-term care first of all what was
2:35
that and then how do i interact with
2:38
people who have memory issues at this
2:41
time and so i was probably like 18 ready
2:44
to go to college the next year wanted to
2:46
work with kids at this point um
2:49
and then totally flipped my entire
2:51
journey and so after that moment it was
2:54
i want to work with seniors because
2:57
i
2:58
feel like they just have all of these
3:00
amazing stories that they can share with
3:02
us they have these experiences
3:04
and um
3:06
yeah i just have gone towards that
3:08
avenue ever since then i took one year
3:11
off and went and worked with teenagers
3:13
after in vancouver love vancouver didn't
3:16
like working with teenagers so came
3:19
right back to older adults i regret my
3:22
decisions for working with teenagers
3:25
i feel like once you work with seniors
3:27
you never go back i feel like i agree
3:29
yeah there's a lot of us i mean i didn't
3:32
know that i wanted to work with seniors
3:33
either until the very last class in
3:35
university which was a psychology of
3:37
aging and then i i too went into
3:40
recreation and long-term care and then
3:42
found my place in retirement living as
3:44
well so um yeah it's been a very
3:47
interesting journey but i do feel like
3:49
once you find
3:51
this industry and you find your spot in
3:53
this industry
3:55
a lot of people don't leave
3:57
yeah and it's funny though because
3:59
thinking back to it how i wanted to work
4:02
with children originally and now i work
4:05
with older adults there's a lot of times
4:07
that you do this intergenerational
4:09
programming like what we're going to be
4:11
kind of talking about today so it kind
4:13
of all mixes in but i do love my older
4:16
adults absolutely and yeah for sure it
4:18
does mix in and so i find that re like
4:21
until recently
4:23
many people you know in the seniors
4:26
industry people in general population
4:29
have undervalued the role of recreation
4:32
and activities
4:33
specifically in the homes
4:35
retirement homes long-term care homes
4:37
group homes
4:39
even some seniors don't really see why
4:42
socialization in retirement long-term
4:44
care homes are so important
4:46
what have you found to be some of the
4:48
benefits that we can share with our
4:49
audience for seniors who engage in wreck
4:53
yeah oh i love that engage in rex so um
4:56
well i just find that over the pandemic
4:59
when there was a lot of isolation going
5:02
on people really learned
5:05
how beneficial recreation is in in their
5:08
lives and whether that be
5:10
for your residents or older adults that
5:12
are living in retirement or long-term
5:14
care or in the communities or even
5:17
myself like going to not have any of
5:19
your leisure activities you really it
5:21
puts a strain on your entire body your
5:24
mind your spirit and so i find that
5:27
the older adults are residents that
5:30
um
5:31
were living with less things to do less
5:34
recreation
5:35
it took a toll on them and they were
5:37
really they came out of it going okay
5:40
i'm ready to see my friends i'm ready to
5:41
see my family i need to be more active
5:44
i've they just have learned the
5:46
importance of recreation for sure
5:48
throughout this time i mean on our on
5:50
the podcast we've talked about covet
5:53
obviously we're all you know living it
5:54
still
5:56
but we've also talked about
5:58
the benefits
6:00
i say benefits of covid lightly but it's
6:04
done so much especially for our senior
6:06
population in you know zoom programming
6:09
and recreation and stuff and also just
6:11
the realization that you do need social
6:13
stuff even me uh my husband was away for
6:16
two weeks with his dad
6:18
and i realized how many people i don't
6:20
talk to in a day like i do talk to my
6:22
team on whatsapp and things like that
6:25
but like there's nobody around right you
6:28
know my four-year-old comes home from
6:29
preschool and she doesn't have much to
6:30
say so it's like you realize you know
6:33
how much after you get into a certain
6:35
rhythm and so that's been important and
6:38
i've also you know like i said i've
6:40
worked in recreation and retirement
6:42
living for years and years and years and
6:45
i think it's so awesome that finally
6:49
that people are starting to see how
6:51
important rec is because i know it you
6:53
know it many other professionals know it
6:55
but it's been this like
6:56
you know extra thing it's like okay well
6:59
if we have time we'll do it or what not
7:01
and you know
7:02
you know apart from folks not realizing
7:05
the importance of recreation programming
7:07
there's also a lot of misconceptions
7:09
right so my personal favorite is i don't
7:11
want to participate because all they're
7:13
going to do is bingo and it's an old
7:14
person's game right all the all the
7:16
seniors moving into retirement or
7:18
long-term care just think that all they
7:20
do is play bingo all day and they don't
7:21
want to do that
7:23
what other misconceptions have you come
7:25
across
7:26
yeah definitely the bingo thing and
7:29
one huge misconception
7:32
that i feel like older adults have is
7:34
i'm too old to do that
7:36
and they come in and they see a bocce
7:40
ball tournament and they're like i would
7:41
never do that i've never done that in
7:42
the past i'm not joining in or i'm too
7:45
old to learn something new whereas i
7:48
really love and appreciate
7:51
the rec professionals that are bringing
7:54
in
7:54
classes bringing in
7:56
like new things for people to try
7:59
because
8:00
when you're in retirement
8:02
it's not
8:03
the end you know it is your second half
8:06
of life whether you are an active
8:09
resident in that retirement community
8:11
whether you're a caregiver and you're
8:12
living in the community
8:14
in that time of your life
8:16
it's your second half and that's your
8:18
time to really figure out what you love
8:20
to do it's not a time that you
8:23
could like if you want to you can stay
8:25
home and watch tv but there's so many
8:27
options and and friendship building
8:30
and engagement that you can participate
8:33
in like
8:34
learning new languages you know like
8:36
people say they they're too old to learn
8:38
a new language but once they are able to
8:41
so many opportunities come available
8:43
like they can create new friendships and
8:46
and
8:47
socialize with other people or
8:50
sports i know people are like i'm not
8:52
active i'm not fit enough to do that and
8:55
they're like just try it just right you
8:56
can be a beginner and and there's so
8:59
many different opportunities out there i
9:01
think that that might be maybe you
9:03
touched on something as well is that
9:05
that being a beginner thing because you
9:08
know i think i talked about this in
9:09
another podcast when i took up yoga i
9:11
was like i'm advanced and it's like no
9:14
you're a beginner amy
9:16
because you think you can do it right
9:17
you think whatever it is and seniors
9:20
have all this life experience and maybe
9:22
for instance they weren't a bocce ball
9:24
player and they feel like they can't
9:26
pick it up
9:27
and then when they do try it they feel
9:29
like they can't be a beginner so i think
9:31
it's important to say you know
9:33
anybody can be a beginner at anything at
9:35
any stage right and yeah it's just
9:37
important to have a go at it give it a
9:39
try if you don't like it great if you
9:41
don't if you do like it terrific i think
9:43
that also um with the increased interest
9:46
in recreation and activity specifically
9:49
in retirement homes
9:51
it's kind of been stirred a little bit
9:53
because now you know corporate office of
9:56
retirement now you know ceos and and
9:59
things like that now starting to
10:01
understand
10:02
that it is important it's important for
10:04
the clientele a lot of retirement homes
10:06
want independent seniors to move in but
10:09
they have to also be able to engage
10:11
these seniors that are moving in and so
10:14
with them kind of lightening the ropes
10:16
and seeing that lets the recreation
10:19
therapists and the activity
10:20
professionals look at different things
10:23
to do engage in different things there's
10:25
all this tech stuff that's coming up
10:27
and and it lets them be more creative
10:29
because i remember you know almost 20
10:31
years ago when i was in wreck
10:33
my rec box was like this like we didn't
10:36
do
10:37
a ton of stuff that they do today and so
10:39
seeing the things that they're doing
10:40
today is just awesome
10:42
i find yeah
10:44
my favorite thing is when when somebody
10:46
comes into your retirement community or
10:49
long-term care whichever
10:51
really looking at what they used to love
10:53
to do in the past and what they were
10:55
great at and and what brings like makes
10:58
their soul sing that's what i use all
10:59
the time what makes your soul sing like
11:01
what do you love to do and then create
11:03
programming around that so if somebody
11:05
was a mechanic in the past and they
11:08
that's what they did for the past 60
11:10
years and now they come into retirement
11:12
well teach people about all the stuff
11:15
that's in a car you know like i don't
11:17
know about that i'm a beginner at it but
11:20
how you talked about
11:21
becoming a beginner and um
11:23
and
11:24
going into those sessions it's like
11:26
people that are joining these
11:29
sessions all have common interests right
11:32
so it's not like somebody's coming
11:33
that's not interested in
11:35
mechanics stuff right so it's generally
11:39
a very supportive environment that
11:41
people are walking into into recreation
11:44
that it's okay to be a beginner because
11:45
we have these other people that are
11:47
sharing their interests and their
11:48
passions too yeah you don't you don't
11:50
generally walk into something and then
11:52
you know joe schmo is like i'm sorry
11:54
we're doing something way too advanced
11:56
for you
11:58
can you imagine that doesn't really
11:59
happen in in and i have never seen i've
12:02
never heard you know in retirement yeah
12:04
sometimes there's clicks and things like
12:06
that but like you're right you're right
12:08
there
12:09
everybody's kind of welcome and then you
12:11
know if people you know if we have
12:13
families and seniors watching us on this
12:15
episode today um it's important to know
12:18
that even if your
12:19
loved one or you as a senior feel like
12:22
that might happen
12:23
often they're you know if in a
12:25
retirement home there's often a
12:27
recreation professional there too so
12:29
even if you think that might happen that
12:31
recreation professional will bring bring
12:33
you in they will make sure you're
12:35
included that's like their whole role
12:37
right not their whole role but a very
12:39
large part is making sure people feel
12:41
comfortable and engaged
12:42
and so it's less to be concerned about
12:44
right but
12:46
absolutely and i always think of that if
12:48
you have an interest in some in
12:50
something somebody else also has that
12:52
interest you know you can never be the
12:54
only one that has an interest in that so
12:56
if you're really interested in baking
12:57
brownies like a thousand percent
13:00
somebody else around you is also
13:02
interested in that yeah well there's
13:03
even more working shops opening up in
13:06
retirement living and stuff like that
13:08
because the population's also changing
13:10
as well right and so yeah as the
13:12
population changes so do what you know
13:15
recreation therapists offer in
13:17
retirement homes or the community
13:18
generally
13:20
and so karina with the grandparents day
13:22
coming up many families would like to
13:25
interact more with the seniors in their
13:27
lives but they're unsure how to do it
13:29
and also as an extra interesting fact
13:32
did you happen to know that on average
13:35
four million cards are sent for
13:37
grandparents day and in the past it's
13:39
been the highest day for visits in
13:41
nursing homes which which is great and
13:43
not great all all at the same time but
13:45
yeah at least we're acknowledging
13:47
grandparents today which is awesome
13:48
karina can you give us some ideas of
13:51
what families could do
13:53
uh with the their loved ones to create
13:56
meaningful interactions um you know with
13:59
the seniors in their lives with their
14:00
grandparents what do you think yeah
14:03
yeah no absolutely um something that i
14:06
really love and i feel like is really
14:08
important is creating some sort of kit
14:12
and whether that's you bringing that
14:14
into your family member or whether the
14:16
rec professionals are creating these in
14:18
advance but having some sort of kit that
14:21
you're able to
14:23
engage with because i know a lot of
14:24
times family members go in and they end
14:27
up just kind of sitting there right and
14:29
then the kids are kind of running around
14:31
and they're doing their thing and you
14:33
really need to have something that
14:34
they're able to interact back and forth
14:36
so if a family member brings in let's
14:38
say a photo album or some trinkets that
14:42
they've they've had in their loved ones
14:44
home forever or
14:46
um
14:47
like a favorite recipe or something from
14:49
their past that they can chat about
14:52
together to keep them engaged i think is
14:55
something that's really important um but
14:57
i know that
14:59
in long-term care retirement lots of
15:01
times recreation professionals will
15:03
create these kits in advance and so they
15:06
can be anything from sensory kits to
15:09
games to
15:11
uh word
15:12
puzzles and so they're really exciting
15:15
to be able to just pull it out and
15:18
start interacting with your grandkids
15:20
like that um
15:21
they've got lots of board games there
15:23
they've got walking outside they've got
15:27
so many different things around the
15:29
facility yeah for sure and they i mean
15:31
there's pets there usually as well and
15:33
different things like that when i was
15:35
doing a little bit of research for our
15:37
show today uh one of the one of the
15:39
things that came up multiple times is uh
15:42
passing knowledge which i think is very
15:45
important you know from a grandparent to
15:47
you know their children or their
15:49
grandchildren you know baking with them
15:52
doing something and passing that
15:54
knowledge uh not only is it great for
15:57
you know humanity generally but that
15:59
really
16:00
um hooks you know grandchildren in
16:03
specifically to their grandparents when
16:05
you say
16:06
yeah and i was also thinking about
16:08
different volunteer opportunities right
16:10
like really connecting with your
16:13
grandkids
16:14
on something that they love to do that
16:16
you love to do also but that gives back
16:19
to the community and so finding those
16:22
opportunities whether that's like
16:24
i
16:25
do
16:26
getting fundraising for the heart and
16:28
stroke foundation or alzheimer's society
16:31
or going on the big bike or or even just
16:34
like
16:35
a bake sale like contributing baking
16:37
together like you said and then using
16:39
that to raise funds to to do those yeah
16:42
yeah for sure also might i suggest take
16:46
pictures i'm a huge on pictures um we
16:50
just had my father-in-law passed away
16:52
unexpectedly and he was ill
16:54
but eva got to hang out with him for a
16:56
few days and she sat in bed with them
16:58
and stuff and i took the picture he was
17:00
ill and of course he's like all right
17:01
take my picture and people aren't
17:03
generally you know let's take my picture
17:05
when i'm ill or take my picture
17:07
generally speaking
17:08
but when you have the opportunity to
17:11
take the pictures that's something i
17:13
missed with my grandparents because it
17:15
was so young i mean i'm dating myself
17:18
now but cameras were different then and
17:20
things like that everybody's got a
17:22
smartphone now and there's it's so easy
17:24
so take the picture it doesn't matter
17:26
what it looks like necessarily but take
17:28
the pictures i think
17:30
yeah absolutely there is this really
17:32
cool uh resource that i just spoke with
17:35
recently actually that is around photos
17:38
and so they're called familio and they
17:41
actually
17:42
are an app and so grandkids family
17:45
members can provide photos into this app
17:48
and then the rec professional prints it
17:51
off and each person has their own
17:53
newsletter of their family
17:55
weekly like how cool is that so it's
17:58
like people that don't have facebook or
18:00
don't have any of these apps that are
18:02
online or don't know how to use those
18:04
it's an actual like physical
18:06
photos of your grandkids and what
18:08
they're up to and i just think it's so
18:11
cool like there's so many things out
18:12
there now super low keep connected yeah
18:15
there's so much tech to be able to you
18:17
know integrate into everybody's lives
18:19
and you know speaking of you know your
18:22
show we mentioned at the top of the show
18:24
that you're also a podcaster which is
18:26
why you're used to asking the questions
18:29
and so you're the host of engage in rec
18:31
can you tell our audience a little more
18:33
about where they can find you a little
18:35
bit more about your podcast so that they
18:37
can tune in and i'll also include um the
18:40
link in the notes for our show too
18:43
yeah so i do engaged in rec podcast and
18:46
it's totally a hobby just for fun
18:49
because i absolutely love talking to
18:51
other recreation professionals but i
18:53
also love sharing really cool resources
18:56
um for recreation professionals and
18:58
activity professionals so i um have the
19:02
pleasure and opportunity to interview
19:05
different companies that just had
19:08
awesome like
19:10
things that they provide to make the
19:12
lives easier of recreation professionals
19:14
because we know we're so busy
19:17
and so um i get to talk to them and
19:20
learn all about what they offer but my
19:22
favorite part is talking to
19:25
recreation professionals that are just
19:27
like on the ground running that have
19:29
really cool stories to share um and
19:33
their experiences and their passions and
19:36
learning about the programs that they
19:37
haven't done yet but they would love to
19:39
do and
19:40
i don't it's just really nice to be able
19:42
to connect with people that have been
19:44
there done that and um
19:46
are really passionate about it so i
19:48
think it's a nice
19:50
a nice way to highlight
19:52
other professionals other um recreation
19:56
professionals specifically for you and
19:58
then the same i kind of do it for the
19:59
same reason our podcast is that i just
20:01
want people to to get support i want
20:04
people to find out about stuff and so i
20:06
think it's really important there and i
20:08
i do feel like recreation therapists and
20:11
specifically in retirement living and
20:13
long-term care are undervalued so you
20:16
know the more support as a community we
20:18
can give them um i think anything is
20:21
better right so um i'm really happy that
20:24
you do that as well um can you please
20:27
let us know how people can get in touch
20:29
with you if they would like to talk to
20:31
you about the podcast or where they can
20:33
find the podcast yeah absolutely so we
20:35
are on spotify we're on apple music
20:39
we're on google podcasts we are all over
20:41
the place um at engaged in rec i'm on
20:44
tick tock i'm on tick tock i've been
20:46
having a lot of fun with silly tick
20:48
tocks
20:49
um i'm on facebook instagram all over
20:53
the place karina stickle on linkedin
20:56
perfect um yeah
20:59
well that is awesome thank you so much
21:01
for joining me today i really appreciate
21:03
it it's always a pleasure to talk to you
21:05
so i um i want to again thank you again
21:08
for coming on and uh if anybody is
21:10
looking for extra information on karina
21:13
um we'll have the show notes afterwards
21:16
as well um and some links to karina and
21:19
to the podcast so thanks again for
21:21
coming on
21:22
thank you
21:23
it's been fun
21:25
that's it for today on artful aging i
21:27
hope that you've enjoyed today's show if
21:30
you found value please like and share
21:32
with your networks remember support is
21:34
only one conversation away thank you for
21:37
joining us from me to all of you i hope
21:39
that you have a wonderful wednesday
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