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Older Adults

We’ve all been asked to stay at home to help stop the spread of the coronavirus, with specific guidance for older adults or those more at risk. 

Creating new routines and adapting to these changes may feel difficult. Feeling worried, anxious or frustrated is normal, so it’s important to take steps to look after your mental wellbeing.

Using CALM may help you to take care of your feelings, your body, your thoughts and what you are doing each day:

  • Calming activities - to help you feel better
  • Attending to basic needs - to help your body  
  • Learning to re-think - to help your thoughts  
  • Making yourself feel good - to help what you are doing day to day  

Take a look at our ‘How to look after your wellbeing’ page for general ideas on how to use CALM.

Staying well for the older generation 

During this challenging time we will be spending a lot more time at home and apart from our family and friends. This will mean some big changes to our normal activities and routines.  As a result, looking after our mental and physical health is going to be more important than ever. We have some tips and useful links below to help with that.

  • Talking to family or friends who can reassure you. Think about who makes you feel better and make a point of getting in touch with them. If you’re over 70 and don’t have someone to talk to, you can use Age Cymru’s Check-in and Chat Service. 
  • There are lots of different relaxation and mindfulness exercises that can help you to look after your wellbeing. Age UK has information about mindfulness on their website.
  • Trying to get some exercise every day, no matter how small. The NHS has some simple sitting exercises if you need to improve your mobility.
  • Thinking about positive times, research says this is good for us: going through old photographs and talking about your memories with others may help. 
  • Making contact with someone who makes you smile, it may be a friend, neighbour, grandchild. There are different ways of connecting with people and the BBC has a step-by-step guide on how to do a video call.