The Quiet Power of Caregiving: Why I Created Joyful Living for Older Adults
A Little Secret I Carry into Every Room
I have a little secret I carry into every room: I’m a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA). When someone tells me their partner, parent, or grandparent is starting to need more support or experiencing cognitive changes, I listen. I’m ready with practical guidance, grounded reassurance, and a reminder that caregiving is hard work and no one should have to do it in silence.
For more than 15 years, older adults and their families have been a huge part of my life. Those years shaped how I lead today as a public health practitioner and wellness educator who centers dignity, connection, and everyday joy. Some of my favorite moments have been the simplest ones: listening at a kitchen table, taking a short walk together, chasing after the cat that got loose, listening to a client holler at their remote or yelling at me because Alexa doesn't want to listen to them, then sharing a good laugh once we figured it all out, and just being present so no one has to feel alone.
Where Senior Wellness Meets Real Life
Aging can hold both beauty and loss. It can include wisdom and resilience, alongside loneliness, stress, and long quiet days. Senior living communities and activity directors are doing meaningful work to strengthen social connection and emotional wellness through life-enrichment programming. But here's what I hear from the field: tight budgets, limited staff capacity, resident fatigue from the same rotating activities, and the pressure to keep calendars full while actually meeting people's deeper needs.
The challenge isn't a lack of effort. It's that one more activity doesn't always translate into what people actually need: a sense of belonging, meaning, and calm woven into everyday life. Research on activity interventions found that when older adults were active participants rather than passive observers, they reported greater life satisfaction and lower social isolation. When older adults feel seen and included, not just scheduled, the room changes. People don't just participate. They connect.
Why I Created Joyful Living for Older Adults
Those experiences, along with my public health lens and hands-on caregiving background, led me to create Joyful Living for Older Adults: a 60-minute, fully facilitated wellness workshop that supports residents' mindset, purpose, and connection while fitting easily into your life-enrichment calendar without adding to your team's workload.
It's a custom package designed for intentional resident engagement. The activities, conversations, and focus areas are tailored to your residents' abilities and what your community needs most. I know that what works in one community doesn't always work in another, so we design the experience based on the goals you're already working toward.
Through guided conversation and creative activities like plant-making, painting, and more, residents have space to ease loneliness, lower stress, and connect with one another in a warm, low-pressure way. Participants also leave with simple, repeatable practices they can use after the session to support calm and connection on their own time.
What’s Included (So Your Staff Doesn’t Have to Do More)
Joyful Living is designed for up to 30 participants and accessible for a wide range of abilities. I handle the planning, facilitation, and materials so your team can focus on what they're already managing.
Here's what you can expect:
A 60-minute, fully facilitated group workshop (no prep needed from your team)
All materials and supplies for up to 30 residents
A brief planning call with your event or recreation coordinator to understand your residents' abilities, your community's goals, and what connection looks like for you right now
Activities and conversation prompts customized based on what we learn in that call
This isn't a one-size-fits-all program. It's designed around your residents and what your community needs most, whether that's easing isolation, creating moments of calm, or giving people space to connect in a meaningful way.
An Invitation to Bring More Joy to Your Community
Joyful Living honors older adults as whole people. It honors their humor, their grief, their stories, and their capacity for joy. It's built to add to your recreation, music, fitness, and life-enrichment offerings, not replace them. It gives residents a fresh experience led by an outside public health and wellness facilitator, not a therapist, and it supports the meaningful programming and resident wellbeing your team is already working hard to create.
If you're part of a senior living community, faith community, or organization that serves older adults and family caregivers, I'd love to connect and hear what your community needs most right now.
Interested in hosting a Joyful Living for Older Adults session? Book a 15-minute consultation and let’s explore what support, connection, and joy could look like for your residents.
Joyful Living for Older Adults is a wellness and enrichment program and does not provide medical, psychological, or therapy services.
