Decatur County seniors are combating social isolation and improving their mental health by joining the Prime Timers Group for bingo and exercise.
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Decatur County seniors combat social isolation and find new community through local Prime Timers group
A North Carolina native, Frances Pate, has called Decatur County home for nearly 30 years. After her husband of 59 years passed away, she felt the need to make the most of her time.
Pate started attending the Prime Timers Group at the Bainbridge Decatur County Recreation Authority when it first started a year ago. The group meets every Tuesday and Thursday to play bingo, exercise, and connect with people in their community around their age.
What started with just two familiar faces has grown into a room full of people she now knows and looks forward to seeing every week. Living alone, she says, having a place like this makes all the difference.
“There’s a lot of people that don’t have anybody at home. And if they didn’t come here as part of their regimen each day, they would just be lonely, just be sitting, you know, nobody to talk to,” Pate said.
Programs like this give many seniors a reason to stay active, connected, and not alone. In Decatur County, where roughly 17% of neighbors are 65 and older according to the United States Census Bureau, staying connected can make a difference.
For 79-year-old Pate, finding that connection didn’t happen overnight.
“I needed something to do. And I come here to the center, I met so many people, you know, because since I’m not from Davis, I had to meet people that, you know, around the same age,” Pate said.
Now she spends her time at Prime Timers, building her friendships through bingo and exercise.
ABC 27’s Vanessa Lawrence spoke with Licensed Mental Health Counselor Crystal Micken, who said social isolation can have an effect on mental and physical well-being.
“It can be like a depression. Maybe that’s what it starts out like because they’re not around people every day to be able to interact, but then that depression can turn physical, and it can take over their actual physical self, and so they’re not moving around as much, they’re not doing as much,” Micken said.
Micken advises seniors at home to seek help from their loved ones to find community activities.
“Reach out to a family member and just, you know, ask them if there’s anything that they could take them to that they know about in the town,” Micken said.
She also shared advice for the families of seniors who may be experiencing isolation.
“Reach out to that, to that individual, and say, hey, do you want to maybe look into doing this?” Micken said.
Resources for Senior Health:
Southwest Georgia Council on Aging: click here
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