Beat the Heat – Summer Senior Wellness Tips

As the summer progresses and temperatures rise, this can quickly play a toll on the overall wellness of seniors. Whether they opt to stay indoors more to stay cool or enjoy being out in the warmer weather, various elements of the changing season should be taken into consideration. Our assisted living and memory care teams make it our top priority to ensure the wellness of our residents year-round. Check out their tips for summer!

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Protect your skin

​As with any time of year, preventing sun damage is important. However, with the warmer weather, more people are outside for longer periods of time and with less layers to protect their skin. Therefore, it’s critical that a good sunblock is applied and reapplied throughout the day.
 
Skin care experts recommend a sunblock of at least 30 SPF with titanium dioxide and/or zinc oxide listed in the ingredients for the best coverage. Located in Colorado, Melody Living in Colorado Springs offers beautiful sunny days throughout the majority of the year – yes, even in snow! This means that the sun can pose a greater risk, in addition to the higher elevation, that's why our Wellness and Life Enrichment teams work together to ensure we offer our residents safe outdoor activities and work hard to take into account all the details that go along with that.

Stay cool

Another important factor for senior wellness in summer is to maintain a cool and healthy temperature. Often times the heat of the day can be too much for some people. Having a community that offers a plethora of indoor activities as well as shaded outdoor activities is important. Having a balance of both is always best, but certain months can be just too hot for many residents to want to be outside. Therefore, finding clever ways to bring some summer fun indoors, is essential! Our events calendar of activities offers a wide variety of indoor and outdoor activities from art classes to outdoor BBQs, we have something for everyone.
 
A few additional tips, if you’re not living in an assisted living or memory care community, are to ensure that fans and air conditioning units are functioning properly and always make sure that your loved one has access to plenty of drinking water to stay hydrated. We even offer Hydration Stations at our communities that incorporate fruit-infused waters for a refreshing and tasty treat.

Enjoy delicious in-season foods

​Our dining team makes it a top priority to provide residents with a nice variety of delicious meals using fresh, locally-sourced and seasonal ingredients! This means that these meals are prepared using fresh in-season produce to ensure that residents have a healthy variety of nutrients from their meals year-round. Some of our favorite summer picks include fresh melons and berries!
 
For more tips on summer senior wellness care or to check out what a Life in Harmony at Melody Living is all about, we’d love to share more! Give us a call today at 719.960.4005 or send us a message on our contact form. We’re happy to answer your questions and also delighted to setup your own personal private tour.