Did you know that volunteering can improve your mental and physical health?
The National Institute of Aging reported that participating in activities that are meaningful and productive may
- Lower the risk of dementia
- Reduce your feeling of isolation
- Increase connections and provide a sense of purpose
- Introduce new routines and skills that promote neural plasticity
The Farmington Valley Health District (FVHD) has offered volunteer opportunities for many years. Volunteers were critical to our successful community vaccination efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic, and since then we have trained lay leaders in programs such as A Matter of Balance and the Live Well with Chronic Disease Programs. Our efforts to conduct a Community Health Assessment (CHA) and Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) have also involved the work of dedicated community members who came forward to share their insights and expertise. These important community outreach opportunities allow FVHD to reach the communities we serve and offer a valuable partnership between our citizens and the health district.
This month we would like to highlight two of our amazing Matter of Balance (MOB) volunteer coaches and the wonderful work they do, keeping our seniors strong and reducing the fear of falling in our community.
We interviewed David Boudreau (age 72) and Colleen van Hemert (age 81) earlier this month about their experiences:
- Why did you choose to become an instructor for Matter of Balance?
Colleen: I saw how valuable an opportunity this might be to engage myself usefully as a volunteer in the community by helping others, at the same time taking positive steps towards assimilating myself and actively engaging with members of my own age group.
David: After completing the class in 2021, I volunteered to become a coach; “It was serendipity: I found the class to be very helpful, and at the same time I was looking for something to do since I’d recently retired.”
- What is the best part of volunteering for this class?
Colleen: “The combination of what we have to teach and what they have to share is going to provide a rich source of additional practical help, emotional support, and valuable inspiration to keep working on staying active to prevent falls and maintain independence.”
David: “That’s easy: the satisfaction of knowing that we’ve helped people take the first steps toward a better quality of life. We’ve taught close to a couple hundred people at this point and invariably the response at the end of the class is a combination of gratitude and optimism. I also love seeing people take the class for a second (and even third) time too- that tells me that they felt it was worthwhile and maybe even enjoyable.”
- What is the most valuable thing you have learned from your class participants?
Colleen: “Participating with the participants as a team working towards the shared goal of fall prevention is what I feel is the most valuable thing I have learned as a MOB instructor.”
David: “That you’re never too old to start to try to get stronger and more flexible. Every class we have people who are living proof of that, people who are trying to get stronger and less afraid despite their age or health problems.”
4: Can you share an inspirational story from your time teaching?
Colleen: “After working with an elderly woman who had experienced a major fall in the previous year, who then attended the class reported that: “It was such a relief to honestly say exactly how I felt. It changed everything for me. That’s why I returned to repeat the class a second time. I knew I had more work to do, and this program was going to help me achieve it.”
David: “A guy from the very first class we taught on our own. He had advanced Parkinson’s disease and was doing what he could to keep its effects under control. He took the class seriously, even working out an Excel spreadsheet for the exercises. I didn’t realize how seriously or just how helpful he’d found it until later, when he wrote a letter to the senior center praising the class. He said he found it even more helpful than the support he was getting from his Parkinson’s therapy, which struck me: here was a guy with a debilitating disease and not a lot to hope for, and yet he found our little class more helpful than the professional therapy he was getting. It told me that what we were doing really could work for anyone, and did give people hope that life didn’t have to just be a drawn-out waiting game for the end.”
A HUGE thank you to both David and Colleen for being such amazing ambassadors for public health and fall prevention, and our senior volunteers!