The green Eden surrounding Discovery Village at Westchase in Tampa is a beautiful outdoor venue one could easily use for healthy walking. As the simple act of walking is reported to lower depression and dementia (Guardian, 2025), there is almost no downside. However, what other options are available for those who already engage in sufficient physical activity, or who may struggle to get out of their chair frequently?
Intellectual wellness activities play a crucial role in maintaining long-term brain health for seniors. Read on to discover how mental stimulation activities and memory care engagement can inspire lifelong learning for aging adults. Discover Discovery Village at Westchase's cognitive enrichment programs that can make living in our community something that will ensure the long-term well-being of you or a loved one today.
Take the opportunity to speak to all those in your community about something special to you. Prepare a presentation yourself, ensuring that you cover both the key basic facts and the details about specific elements that are important to you. Ensure that you don't go too technical, but always strive to engage the audience and make the presentation relatable.
Allow time at the end to answer questions, potentially leading into a more conversation if others are interested enough.
If you do this regularly, try not to focus on the same topic by rotating themes with other topics, allowing people to learn about everyone's interests. Alternatively, hand out ideas for everyone to consider. Then, they can research these topics and look into them for themselves, adding their own perspective to the conversation.
Another option is to bring in guest speakers who may have specialized knowledge. If these are friends of the community or well-known local figures, they are even more likely to have the rapt attention of those in the room, thereby creating a more exciting opportunity.
Organize regular board or card game sessions. Play word games like Scrabble or host a trivia event to trigger memories and share knowledge, allowing everyone to showcase their expertise and knowledge.
If you do this on a long-term basis, you can even organize a scoreboard or league. However, be aware that some individuals in Memory Care may have issues with these types of games, and that events where one can "lose" may not align well with the challenges they face in daily life.
For the more creative members of a group, they may want to start playing storytelling games, such as using Story Cubes, or exploring options like For the Queen or Daggerheart to engage others in an ongoing narrative. These can also be as collaborative and positive as necessary for the mindset of others in the community.
It is not only games and direct involvement in "events" that count as activities that can help with mental wellness. Even a simple meal can have a significant impact, and the CDC agrees, suggesting that good nutrition is a core part of mental wellness. At the same time, the conversations that can occur over a meal are a good part of ensuring that loneliness is not a trigger for further issues.
For those seeking good food and great company, our Sensations dining offers restaurant-quality meals in a beautiful dining setting. Chefs carefully choose the dishes to provide seniors with the best available nutrition.
Here in Discovery Village at Westchase, we offer experiences tailored to individuals' mental wellness needs, matching them with activities that best suit their situation. Even in severe cases, when one cannot recall much of their past, we can provide moment-centric activities that allow people to enjoy the experience during the time they are performing the activity.
Examples of these include:
Each of these can help boost a loved one's mood in the moment, providing a positive experience from moment to moment. They can also help with socializing by allowing for something to talk about during the activity.
When family members visit, they can also participate in these activities, creating a shared experience for the family. Such kits are also easy to gather, helping families to develop their own should they bring a loved one home for the holidays or at other events.
Residents can compile keepsakes from various milestones in their lives, such as awards or photos, to show off. They can then guide the rest of the group through their lives, one memory at a time, helping people understand the events that have shaped them into who they are today.
Every item is likely to evoke several memories, so allow people to talk for as long as they wish about themselves, one week at a time, moving on to another resident the next. However, allow for others to share relatable moments in their own lives and ask questions, to ensure that everyone feels heard.
Such a social activity is likely to present many different viewpoints, often around the same events, which can foster a sense of community camaraderie. Chats like these can help people come together, avoiding issues of loneliness and social isolation. So, encourage people to get excited about others in their circle and the stories they tell.
When possible, the person running the event could even link a laptop to a presentation screen, allowing them to search for and display images of any events discussed. In some cases, even the person talking about them may not be aware that the pictures exist, so this can often be a pleasant surprise.
Mental and intellectual wellness activities help foster independence and confidence in a crowd, and the opportunity to succeed at an activity that allows one to express oneself can bring joy at any age.
To learn more about how Discovery Village Westchase achieves this, please get in touch with us to schedule a personal visit. We can show you how our staff and residents collaborate to create a rich cultural tapestry within our walls.