Wellness assessments provide knowledge, resources for healthy future

By Meghan Streit
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE

Monarch Landing resident Janet Hillis is retired, but she is exercising more, expanding her social circle, and challenging herself to try new activities. Hillis credits her rejuvenation in part to a VIVA! wellness assessment that she took a few months ago.

“I would recommend it to anybody,” she says, “because you take the tests, and then they tell you how to improve your weaknesses and give you resources to do so.”

Monarch Landing launched the VIVA! program last fall. The comprehensive wellness screening is based on a series of tests that measure physical, psychological, and social strengths and areas for improvement. The goal of the assessment is to help older adults learn how to age more successfully, stay active, and continue to enjoy their favorite recreations. They can learn to reduce body fat, improve balance, or manage depression, among other goals.

Knowledge is everything
Antonio Galvan, Monarch Landing’s VIVA! program manager, says the screenings are not intended to make medical diagnoses. Rather, they give people information about their own health and provide them with tools to make positive changes.

“If you don’t have that awareness, how can you know if you’re investing your time in the right things?” Galvan says. “As you reach retirement years, you need to be efficient and smart about allocating your time to the things that will help you build upon your strengths and also improve your weaknesses.”

For Hillis, the VIVA! wellness screening helped her realize that she wasn’t getting enough exercise. Now she works out at Monarch Landing’s fitness center twice a week and has joined an aquatics class there to alleviate arthritis symptoms. She is also taking a class to improve her balance and says she has even started taking the stairs instead of the elevator to build more physical activity into her daily routine.

“I feel like I’m doing something good for myself,” Hillis says.