Movendos coaching of 65-80-year old seniors has been tried twice in the service center of Myllypuro in Helsinki. The coaching has been done by physiotherapists, and the goal of the coaching has been improving everyday activity and getting by at home. The coaching has helped separating goals to small everyday tasks and it has also helped monitoring the progress of the coaching. Rudolf’s retirement home in Helsinki also participated in 2016, but because of the small number of clients there the experiment was quite small scale.
The first coaching “experiment” was done in the spring of 2015. The group of eight participants that started then continued their coaching for longer than the intended 5 month period. In the first pilot one group meeting per month was held, and the coaching support given between the meetings was personalized with individual goals. The seniors felt that this was pleasant and invigorating and they felt that the coaching tool was easy to use. The physiotherapists regarded the coaching tool as a great way to motivate the coachees. You will also get to know the client better.
The task content of the coaching was mainly about individual supporting of everyday exercise and muscle strength training, relaxing and supporting mobility. Some tasks were also about nutrition and sleeping. A few also had a goal for weight loss. Examples of individual scores in the first pilot: 10 kg of weight loss with small changes to everyday life, the waist size of many participants noticeably decreased, limb mobility increased, smoking decreased and the participants felt much better.
The second time this was done in the spring of 2016 there were the same amount of participants. This time there weren’t any group meetings, instead the physiotherapist and the client met as they needed to. Additionally, people from the groups related to other themes met once a week. The seniors were really motivated and happy with this coaching.
The second pilot also included the introduction- and final measurements. The coachees did a series of tests that measured their balance, walking speed and the time it takes for them to stand up from a chair. Their clenching force was also tested, they did a depression test for seniors and a TUG-test, which measures things related to posture change, walking and moving from one place to another. The greatest progress in most seniors was the increase in clenching force, maximally 25% in each hand. Individually many coachees improved in walking speed and standing up. In the mood measurement the greatest progress happened in happiness in life, cheerfulness, energy, hopefulness, and most of the coachees didn’t wish to decrease sports and activities anymore.
