Comments on the ergonomics of the physiotherapist’s work and suggestions on cooperation with other members of the therapeutic team and people from the patient’s close environment (family, friends)

Imagine that you want to achieve the following goals while working with an elderly person who does not have any disabilities and aims to age healthily:

• Make them understand what the aging process involves, what it can lead to, and what physiotherapeutic approaches will include.
• Reduce the elderly’s anxiety, stress or other negative emotions
• Increasing the elderly’s motivation to actively participate in exercises
• Emphasize that the elderly person did the exercises successfully and give them a feeling of satisfaction.
• Increase the confidence of the elderly
• Help the elderly overcome their fear of death, peer loneliness and social isolation.
• Encourage the elderly person to refuse negative thinking and be optimistic about the future
• Relax the body
• Support the elderly’s intrinsic motivation to actively participate in exercises

Below are the types of interventions you can benefit from. Try to match these with the goals presented above:

• Education
• Speech
• Setting long-term and short-term goals
• Assistance with social support (e.g. participation in physical activity with peers or weekend outdoor activities with family)
• Relaxation techniques
• Awareness techniques
• Arrangement of the rehabilitation area (for example, group exercise)
• Provide frequent feedback (“You’re doing well,” “look at how much you’ve accomplished so far”)
• Replacing exercises or treatments that the elderly find difficult to do, fail to do, or dislike, with alternatives.
• Appreciation of the effort put into therapy, even if the effects are not yet satisfactory
• Breathing exercises
• Paying attention to sleep and rest hygiene
• Psychological counseling and dietitian advice
• Helping the elderly person become aware of their other talents and help them find new hobbies.