As we age, our physical wellness is one of the areas where we can contribute to our own well-being. Be it simply walking more, joining in a group for physical activity, or doing some activity in the privacy of your own home to increase your balance and energy levels.

It can be as simple as parking on the far side of the carpark when we go shopping, or joining your LAC’s walking group, or a group of friends around the golf course, local beach or park. There may also be the opportunity of joining a dancing or ‘keep-fit’ exercise class, or as described in this issue of Life News Magazine, joining one of the walking sport groups popping up. If you loved basketball when you were younger it’s great to discover you don’t have to give it up if you can still walk!

It was indeed encouraging to meet so many Victorians during the Seniors Festival in the 1st week of October. We hope our Clubs have benefitted with increased enquiries from the public following the great work of our volunteers who gave up their time to talk to people and hand out our publicity material.

Another year is nearly over and I sincerely hope you are all getting out and about and embracing life? We only get one shot, so I hope you are making the most of yours?

Have an enjoyable holiday season and happy travels if you’re planning to get away.

Kath Frowen
President - Life Activities Clubs Victoria Inc.

New Head Office. Another perfect move to a more permanent home.

“Goodbye Suite 4.05, 50 Queen Street. Having moved in October 2020 during the Victorian lockdowns, we didn’t get to spend much time there but did enjoy sharing our space with the U3A team.”

“Hello level 19, 485 La Trobe St. Our new location is situated opposite the Flagstaff Gardens. It provides us with a contemporary serviced office, professional meeting rooms and support staff. With 9 locations around Victoria, we would be able to access meeting rooms at many locations.”

Moving into a single office space meant that a lot of furniture and paperwork needed to be condensed. The Board spent a day at the storage unit sorting through all historical LACVI files and equipment. It was an enjoyable working bee and we managed to get through quite a lot with great satisfaction.

There is still a lot of work to be done setting up IT systems but once this has been completed, we will be able to settle into this space for many years to come and enjoy it’s surroundings.

ICDA (or Institute of Community Directors Australia) is a NFP Organisation that helps other Organisations through Training, Manuals and Resources.

LACVI took up Membership in 2021 to provide added Resources for its Member Clubs. We have organised our first face-to-face Workshop on Succession Planning scheduled for Tuesday 21st Feb-2023 from 11am till 1pm in our Office Building at 485 La Trobe Street, Melbourne.
This Workshop will be facilitated by ICDA Trainers and has been tailored to suit LACVI. It will provide Clubs the necessary tools and knowledge.

We’ll cover the following, as well as answering all your questions:

• Succession planning – what’s that?
• The landscape – where are we now?
• Developing a strategic succession plan – how?
• Building a skilled, diverse board
• Who and where are our future people?
• Volunteering pathways
• Creating a healthy induction process
• Retaining Committee members

The Succession Planning workshop is FREE, but seats are limited. More details will be sent, but Members can start registering via the link below: https://communitydirectors.com.au/training/lacvi-members 

COVID-19 has changed so many aspects of our lives. Older people have been incredibly resilient in the face of the challenges of the pandemic – learning new skills, adopting healthy habits and looking out for each other.

As we navigate our third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, it remains so important we do all that we can to look after our health and wellbeing, and make sure no-one is left behind.

While some people feel comfortable returning to activities and socialising, some people are continuing to take extra precautions to protect themselves and those they care for, particularly if they are facing health challenges.

When planning activities and social outings, there are simple steps we can take to help everyone feel included and supported to participate.

• Everyone feels different about getting back out there and socialising – and that’s OK. Encourage and support people to do what makes them feel comfortable.
• Make the most of the warmer weather. Where possible, plan to meet up outdoors or in spaces with good ventilation.
• Wearing a face mask can help protect you and those around you. You can choose to wear a mask in crowded or indoor spaces, and support your friends or family who continue to wear a mask. If you have COVID-19, are a close contact, or visiting people who may be vulnerable to COVID-19, face masks are recommended.
• Continue to provide online options for planned activities and events. The use of technology has opened up opportunities for so many people to participate from home. For some people, online events are easier to join, more accessible and inclusive.
• Connect with people through other means – chat over the phone, send a text message or email, or try a video call. It can be really helpful to talk to someone, and to be an open ear for the people you care about, too.

For more tips and advice, check out the resources available on the Coronavirus website: www.coronavirus.vic.gov.au/health-advice

Council on the Ageing (COTA) Victoria is the peak body representing the rights, needs and interests of Victorians over the age of 50.

Older people currently make up more than 20% of Victorian voters and this number is growing. With this in mind, COTA Victoria calls on all parties and independents to commit to the following six asks in the lead up to the 2022 state election.

1. Provide access to safe, affordable housing and strengthen residents’ rights
There has been a steep increase in the number of older people experiencing homelessness over the past few years, with older women disproportionately impacted. Home ownership is falling among older Victorians and only 1.7% of rental housing is affordable to a single person on the Aged Pension. Despite increasing demand, waiting lists for public and community housing have continued to grow while housing stock has decreased.

2. Bridge the divide for older Victorians who are digitally excluded
Older people are the most digitally excluded age group in Australia. The equity gap for these people has increased significantly over the past few years as more information and services have moved online. It is critical that there are low-tech, age-friendly communication channels available to meet their needs.

3. Help older Victorians get where they need to go
Access to transport is recognised as a key factor influencing active ageing. Older people who do not drive risk being unable to shop, attend medical appointments or participate in community activities if appropriate and affordable alternatives are not provided.

4. Improve access to assistive technology to support healthy and active ageing
The timely provision of assistive technology is critical to enabling people to remain safe, mobile, active and independent as they age. While these products can be fully funded under the National Disability Insurance Scheme, many older people are ineligible for this scheme and cannot access the support they need elsewhere.

5. Support people who have experienced or are at risk of elder abuse
Around 15% of older people experienced elder abuse in the past 12 months. Although elder abuse is a form of family violence, it can be different to intimate partner violence as it is often perpetrated by adult children and requires a specialist approach. Elder abuse services continue to be severely underfunded in comparison with other family violence services, despite increasing demand.

6. Improve the oral health of older Victorians
Many older Victorians experience pain and discomfort, the onset of secondary health conditions and poor nutrition because they do not have timely access to affordable dental care. While some older people can access free or low-cost care through public dental services, they can currently wait more than 2 years to access this support. Older Victorians living in residential aged care or Supported Residential Services have little or no access to dental care.

Read COTA Victoria’s full state election platform here.

You can also take action. To write to your local MP or political candidate see COTA Victoria’s 2022 Victorian Election Action network site. This provides a template letter, addresses to MPs and COTA Victoria’s election platform information. This is from you, not COTA Victoria, so you can edit this to be what you want to say and exit from using the platform at any time.

For the first time Life Activities Clubs Vic had 2 dedicated pages in the Festival Booklet. Let us all make it our goal to at least double this for 2023.

Sunday the 2nd of October saw the Celebration Day at Federation Square as usual but with a later start due to competing with a Nike Marathon. We were blessed with beautiful weather and thanks to all who volunteered manning our Marquee on the riverside. It was great to talk to so many people about Life Activities Clubs and to lift our profile.

At 2pm Kath Frowen and I led a Walk in the Park from the Princes Bridge through the famous Queen Victoria Gardens taking in the statues, tributes and memorials, finishing up at The Tan. Most of the attendees agreed this is a hidden gem and thoroughly enjoyed the hour long walk.

On Wednesday the 5th of October we held another walk, Parks and Plaques Walk. Kath Frowen and Rebecca Luxford took half the group and a friend of mine and I took the Ballarat contingency of 20. This walk started at Parliament Station through a series of gardens, observing plaques, statues, fountains, churches and beautiful homes from the past.

The weather God wasn’t quite so kind but we all managed to have an enjoyable hour and a half.

Monday to Friday instead of being at the Town Hall Hub festival organisers took us to the Edge in Federation Square, whilst a bright and larger venue the lack of signage effected the numbers attending but once again thank you to all volunteers.

The Seniors Festival is over for another year, thanks to Deb for virtually being there before, during and after the week.

By Sue Van Gerrevink - LACVI Secretary

Celebrated at the 2022 Victorian Senior of the Year Awards.

The community contributions and volunteer work of older Victorians were celebrated at Government House in October with the announcement of the 2022 Victorian Senior of the Year Awards.

Seventeen older Victorians were recognised in the 2022 awards for their leadership, dedication and hands-on support for their local communities. The ceremony was also an opportunity to recognise 2021 awardees, including many who were nominated for stepping up to support their community during the COVID-19 pandemic and continuing their long-standing volunteer roles.

President of the Pyalong Neighbourhood House, Moira Waye, received the Premier’s Award for Victorian Senior of the Year for her tireless contributions to her local community and beyond. Moira was instrumental in the establishment of a local op shop and organising countless food packages and fodder for farmers in Victoria and New South Wales in times of need.

Father Bob Maguire received the Ageing Well Award for his commitment to supporting people experiencing disadvantage and homelessness, alongside his ‘Bob Squad’ of volunteers and generous donors.

Diana Collier received the Healthy and Active Living Award for her lifelong commitment to social justice and volunteering efforts across a range of community projects. The Promotion of Multiculturalism Award was presented to Marie Pietersz, who was recognised for her passion for building social and cultural connections through music and dance.
Thirteen older Victorians also received a Council on the Ageing (COTA) Victoria Senior Achiever Award.

Congratulations to all awardees. To find out more about the awards, visit seniorsonline.vic.gov.au/awards.

The evidence indicates loneliness is linked to a faster rate of cognitive decline and dementia for older Australians. Remaining physically and mentally active can help people to live longer and have more productive lives.

Members of Life Activities Clubs gain the many benefits of companionship with the opportunity to make new friends, discover new talents and stretch their mind and muscles by getting involved with new activities.
They remain engaged, connected and most importantly, they have fun together. There is something for everyone.

Balance exercises reduce the risk of falls in seniors. That’s because balance affects every aspect of daily life, from walking to standing to reaching for shelves in the kitchen. By improving your balance, you’ll improve your confidence and independence.

Source: www.lifeline.ca/en/resources/14-exercises-for-seniors-to-improve-strength-and-balance/

Walking Football across Victoria is coordinated by Football Victoria in building up hubs and supporting existing seniors active groups to play football no matter the experience.

The program targets 50+ year old’s to get together once a week to play football and keep active.

We have 16 Hubs set up across Victoria to keep seniors active. We have a program in Beechworth, Bendigo, Mornington and other areas highly populated with over 50’s citizens. The program promotes health and well-being amongst a social environment. We have held walking football tournaments celebrating men’s health week and women’s health week with all our hubs meeting in one location over lunch to play.

As a result of this we have 2 teams traveling to gold coast for the masters walking football competition which is run every year nationally. Beechworth and Whittlesea will be attending.

Article by Football Victoria

Walking basketball is a low impact, fun way to socialise and improve your fitness. A slower version of basketball that anyone can play no matter what your ability. Gain a sense of achievement by learning a new skill and participate in a structured team sport that improves your health and wellbeing.

Sandringham Life Activities play walking basketball Wednesday at 10am at the basketball centre Tulip St, Sandringham.

Anyone who would like to join us would be most welcome. With warm up exercises prior to our half hour game, it’s a lot of fun and it certainly improves your skills. Our coach Nathan puts us through our paces, age is no barrier, and every player gets a go.

You can tell the grandkids... ‘I’m playing basketball today!’

By Barry Scott - Sandringham

The elderly often suffer from a wide variety of symptoms that aromatherapy can help with.

Below are some oil comibinations outlining which oils to use for poor appetite and grief to circulatory issues and depression.

Featured in: The Essential Oils Apothecary

Relationships are the secret to a longer, happier, healthier life. Whether it’s your family, friends or romantic partners, relationships come in all shapes and sizes. Our days are filled with social interactions. These connections help us navigate modern life because one of the key factors in our success as a species is our ability to co-operate with each other.

The similarity/attraction theory
With a constant stream of unfamiliar faces, how do we know who to avoid and who to trust? It’s called the similarity/attraction theory. As the saying goes ‘birds of a feather, flock together.’

Research suggests that similarities in appearance can also suggest we share our values, beliefs and attitudes. It means a stranger is more likely to cooperate with us and maybe even end up as a friend.

That sense of belonging, or fitting in, is the most important reason why humans are more attracted to those who share similar attitudes. Furthermore, humans are creatures of habit, and for the most part, value stability. When those around you share your general outlook on life, meaning they are similar to you, they offer a sense of stability.

As we get to know strangers, they become acquaintances and as we bond they become friends. With nearly 8 billion people on the planet, the need to cooperate with each other is critical to our success and survival. But how do we manage all these relationships?

The social brain
It’s thought that humans evolved larger brains comparative to their body size because it helped them to be more social. A lot of our social ability is grown over time through repeated social interactions.

The ‘social brain’ is not a single region, but a complex network of areas with different functions that together support complex social interactions.
The key driver for the social brain is the frontal cortex - the behaviours, the interactions and understanding.

The parietal lobe - lays down the sensory and the motor parts.
The occipital region at the back is the visual cortex - it puts a sort of vision into that process of social interaction.

And then all of these relays through the temporal lobe - gives memory and constructs an understanding.

And really the social brain is the essence of being a human and really navigating through the complexities of life and getting reward through the process.

Dunbar’s number
The theory known as Dunbar’s number, is that 150 is the limit of both our capacity to remember the details of the friendship, and the amount of time we have to spend with people. Within the group is a hierarchy.

5 – The inner circle that provides us with the most emotional support. We devote as much as 40% of our social time and energy towards nurturing those relationships.

15 – sympathy group. If something were to happen to one of them, you would be devastated. They are part of your identity.

50 – close friends. If you were having a big party, you’d want to invite them all.

150 – People that you could just walk up to them and start chatting to them as if it were yesterday that you saw them last.  

Outside of that lies an outer circle, with a limit of 1500. These are the people whose faces you recognise, maybe you know their names if you’re very good with names, but this marker when you put it in everything outside of them, are the strangers.

Laughing
Social interaction isn’t just good for us on an emotional level, it may even be good for our health. We love to laugh. It’s a way of expressing that we feel happy. And it’s something we prefer to share. We’re 30 times more likely to laugh around other people. Laughing together creates a sense of intimacy. It’s a social glue. But beyond its social power, laughter also has physical power.

We know when we laugh, our brain releases endorphins, which are our body’s natural painkiller, but they also interact with our brain to make us feel really, really good. And we also get a release of another hormone called oxytocin, which promotes social bonding. Oxytocin also goes up; cortisol levels go down.

Laughter really is the best medicine.

What is loneliness?
One in four Australians report loneliness at any given time.  
Loneliness is a subjective feeling of social isolation. So, you feel your relationships are not quite meeting your social needs at the moment.

Generally when we say the word loneliness, it brings up a lot of negative connotations and is what we call the stigma of loneliness. So people don’t want to seem vulnerable or weak and therefore don’t talk about it. Loneliness can be experienced in transient ways or more chronic ways. Either way is actually really bad for our health. Chronic loneliness has been shown to increase the risk of death by 26% and is as dangerous to our health as smoking 15 cigarettes per day.  

When we’re excluded, our brain enters a hyper vigilant state, preparing us for fight or flight. Making us appear grumpier and more unsociable. The short-term effect of being left out can build up over time and have potentially deadly consequences.  

So, it’s really important that we try to reduce this, so we don’t have hypertension or a cardiac event like a heart attack. We have seen that quite consistently people who have been socially excluded show there’s quite a large elevation in their blood pressure. But what we also see is that this can be linked to higher rates of depression and depressive symptoms. That’s why it’s actually really important to make sure that we try to be kind to other people and be inclusive as much as we can. Forming bonds with other people can sometimes lead to forming your closest relationship of all.

Relationships with people can be emotional and tricky. If the science has taught us anything, it’s to treasure these bonds, because loneliness can go unnoticed, and its health implications are devastating.

Source: abc.net.au/catalyst/the-science-of-relationships/14006564

At a recent reunion of my university year, amidst wonder of the age of each other but some reluctance to assess ourselves, a couple of common themes repeated over the two days of reminiscing, expanding on memories and generally feeling grateful that we could gather at 80 plus and also get ourselves to showers, meals, and across uneven ground without too much trouble.

The three themes which repeated and became stronger as we opened up and realised we were still amongst friends, encompassed, health, wealth, and the changes in communication. Wealth came a poor third!

By the second night, as the attending wives relaxed and allowed rather than corralled their partners, we found ourselves sharing not just the facts and changing measurements of our ageing, but the changes in, and dangers of...perception of self and others and the feedback that the perception results in.

The simple fact was that we were all 80 plus. The second simple and visually obvious fact was that some of us were faring better than others, and a few were not faring!

And in conversation the differences became even stronger as each individual gave his assessment of his own life and current state.

In general, those who saw themselves as old and losing strength, firmity and cognitive skills, who talked down their state of mind or heaped comparisons on themselves, had neither the spirit or forward, positive outlook to most of the others. As one man said to me, “I got to 80 just fine, then it all fell over and I’m pretty much done now!” And he was. And his partner aided that with consoling rather than any challenge or encouragement in comments.

By contrast, the brighter sparks were still cycling, swimming, etc. And stretching their physical life, had found something called literature and music, were involved in U3A subjects, their families, and could see no reason to stop pushing sensibly at the boundaries that their mind and body appeared to be strongly reinforcing or tightening the fence wires of. An enclosure!

And then there were passengers, drifting, and letting the age indicators signal compliance and bumping down the stairs.

“I am not sure anything is worthwhile, John, do you?”
Yes I said, “Yes I do! All of it!” And went on to explain the point I want to make to you at 60, 70 or 80.

Watch your self-talk! Be careful of the feedback of how you perceive yourself and others. In particular the measuring you are doing of your contemporaries who are seeing the glass half empty rather than being half full and quite sufficient in that half fullness.

Perception and observation are quite wonderful skills which can add richness, humour, and brightness, and with positive messages attached, keep us contemporary and engaged in meaningful and contributive life.

Too much measurement or adherence to unrealistic expectations can turn perception into negative and self-defeating behaviour, stature, and interaction with others, including our partners and family. So, take care of your reactions - live with eyes wide open, keep your vision wide and embrace, for: .... “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” William Shakespeare.

By John Tapper - Board Member