Hundreds of older people in South Wales will be given regular help to maintain their physical and mental health and to become less isolated, thanks to a grant of £15,000 to the Action for Elders Trust from South Wales Freemasons.
The Action for Elders Balanced Lives programmes have had a hugely positive impact. The programme is strongly recommended by local GPs and helps older people to deal with problems of limited mobility and lost muscle strength with carefully supervised exercise classes. These are particularly useful for those who are recovering from a fall or after a hospital admission.
The classes are also aimed at dealing with commonly occurring mental health issues such as depression and anxiety, as these often arise from extended periods of social isolation and loneliness, so the classes are very much aimed at being fun, social events.
As well as the hundreds of older people in Wales that are helped by Balanced Lives, there are thousands more throughout the country from Peterborough to Hereford and Sheffield to York. The charity aims to help many more older people to live healthier and happier lives.
The Later Life Inclusion grant from South Wales Freemasons runs over three years and comes through the Masonic Charitable Foundation, which is funded by freemasons, their families and friends, from across England and Wales.
James Lewis, CEO at Action for Elders said: “We’re really grateful to South Wales Freemasons for their generous grant, which will help us in our hugely important work with older people from across Wales. People are living longer in our society, but far too often they have a terrible quality of life. Our aim is to help them have better physical and mental health as well as staying as full members of our local communities.”
William Jenkins from South Wales Freemasons said: “I’m very pleased we’ve been able to help Action for Elder with their work. It’s vitally important that our senior citizens get the help they need to keep and improve their physical and mental health, while avoiding the loneliness and social isolation that is, sadly, all too common among older people today.”