Health & Wellness

Getting Your Ducks in a Row - Personal Record and Document Organization, Management, and Communication

Instructor: Judy Rough Dates and Time: Every Wed. 9/7 through 10/26 10 a.m. to noon EST. Location: Online via Webex

Do you think you have your Life’s Papers and Plans in order? Is nothing pulled together? Or are you somewhere in the middle? This system of vital record and document organization and management (both physical and electronic) covers the following areas over 8-weeks and can help you fill in or create your system from scratch. Take the burden of your incapacity or end-of-life off those you care about when you get your ducks in a row. Week 1 - System Introduction - Security – physical & electronic - Storage – physical & electronic - Binder set up or folder system Week 2 - My IDs – identification records and documents - My Contacts – address book, in case of emergency (ICE) information Week 3 - My Health – health, medical and wellness records Week 4 - My Insurance – policies, identification cards, and more - My Taxes – receipts, current, and past tax returns Week 5 - My Finances – finance and property documentation Week 6 - My Estate – estate planning and documentation - My Things – home inventory Week 7 - My Plans – preparedness for every day and in the event of an emergency - My Memories – memorabilia Week 8 - My Roadmap & converting the entire system into a communication device - Additional questions

The Many Phases of Personal Finance

Instructor: Frances Kubicek Dates and Time: Tues. 9/13, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Location: StoryPoint, Media Room While Personal Finance begins with a budget and zsocial security, retirement planning, long-term care planning, and estate planning. This course will emphasize the advanced stages of personal finance but will touch upon some of the early phases as well. The facilitator plans to review the importance of investing for the future, utilizing social security, understanding retirement planning, and preparing for long-term care and estate planning.

Air Zoo: Preserving Family Artifacts

Instructor: Christy Kincaid Dates and Time: Thurs. 9/22, 10 a.m. to noon Location: Air Zoo

Do you have treasured family artifacts that you are interested in preserving? Spend time with the Air Zoo’s Collections Department to learn how to best care for these family treasures. Participants will have the opportunity to engage in a round table experience, bringing artifacts and questions from home and learning how the Air Zoo preserves the artifacts in their extensive collection. You will also receive a behind-the-scenes tour of the archival collection and an overview of the Air Zoo’s history highlighting major collections of the museum.

The Sense of Aging - Empathy Dining Experience

Instructor: Sharon Landman Dates and Time: SECTION 1: Tues. 9/27, 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. SECTION 2: Tues. 10/18, 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. SECTION 3: Tues. 11/1, 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. Location: StoryPoint, Blue Activity Room Join us to engage in an Empathy Dining Experience, we will part-take in a five-course meal while using aging simulation devices to allow the participants to recognize and hopefully empathize with our senior loved ones’ perspectives. There will be some laughter, possibly tears, and hopefully, an ah-ha moment as you view dining through another’s eyes and come to appreciate your senses even more and enjoy a delicious meal.

Mindfulness for Health and Well-Being

Instructor: Eric Nelson Dates and Time: Tues. 10/4, 10/11, 10/18 and 10/25, 1 to 3 p.m. Location: Friendship Village, Village Clubhouse Keystone Mindfulness practice has become very popular over the past decade because of its effectiveness in reducing physical and emotional suffering. In this four-session course you will learn the essential mindfulness and compassion practices that have been tested by science and proven effective in reducing stress and anxiety, while increasing attention, emotional balance, resilience, selfcompassion and relationship harmony. Just like physical exercise, which strengthens the body, mindfulness exercise strengthens mental, emotional and physical balance. If you want to enjoy each day more and reduce stress, this course is for you.

The Joy of Intergenerational Scrapbooking

Instructor: Diane Jones Dates and Time: Thurs. 10/6, 10/13 and 10/20, 1 to 3 p.m. Location: StoryPoint, Media Room Calling all photo enthusiasts from 9 to 90! Can you imagine the joy of scrapbooking while learning about interesting activities of a family member? Or the sheer enjoyment of looking at photos of your grandchildren as your daughter or grandchild sits right there beside you? Imagine the dialogue, fun and laughter as you share interesting facts of your younger days with a friend who might be attending this class with you. And, YES! This is just the class for you! Some of the loose photos that you have stored away in shoeboxes or envelopes can be arranged on a page to tell a story. “Generations of Conversations” would be a good subtitle for this class. You will gain many ideas of how to organize, implement and produce a great photo scrapbook.

Some New Tricks for Old Dogs

Instructors: Barbara Rider and Fred Sammons, Dates and Time: Mon. 10/17, Wed. 10/19 and Fri. 10/21, 10 a.m. to noon. Location: Rider/Sammons home, 2622 Winchell Ave, Kalamazoo, 49008 Maybe “old age ain’t fun”, but there are many ways to make it easier. In this course, you will be able to try out various assistive devices and share strategies that minimize disabilities. Various home modifications will be discussed. The class will meet in Barb and Fred’s home which they built to be accessible for persons with disabilities. Strategies for safe driving will be presented. Participants will have the opportunity to check their brake reaction time and visual acuity for driving.

Scams: Origins, Types, Workings, Identification, and Prevention

Instructor: Charlie Olszewski Dates and Time: Wed. 10/19 and 10/26, 2 to 4 p.m. EST Location: Online via Webex

The more you know about scams and how they operate, and the more careful you are in how you respond to money or personal information requests, the less likely you are to be a victim. Survey of types of scams including at least: phone & online Scams (including robo calls), COVID-19, cryptocurrency, romance scams\sextortion. Scams aimed at individuals and scams aimed at businesses (banking, infrastructure, military). Will also explain how scams work: social engineering scams, ransomware, phishing scams, bogus websites, robocalls, etc.

How do they really start? Why they are successful? How we enable scammers? How to identify scams, prevent deter scams & what to do if scammed. The role of deception, disinformation, misinformation and being informed.

Planning for Death: Leave No Stone Unturned

Instructor: Susan Caulfield Dates and Time: Tues. 10/25 and 11/1, 1 to 3 p.m Location: College of Health and Human Services, Room #1035

Participants in this course will be introduced to a variety of topics that one might wish to address in preparing for the eventuality of death. Rather than approach this as a taboo or morose topic, the course will focus on identifying important topics/issues that one wishes to be honored both before and after dying. These topics include legal documentation and might also include if one wants a service and, if so, what kind of service. Does one want to write their own obituary? Are there people one hopes to be present when near death? Or are there people one does not want present at that time? Overall, the theme is to create an inventory of what is important and begin work on addressing each item in one’s inventory.and war.

COVID-19: Where Are We In 2022?

Instructor: Gillian Stoltman Dates and Time: Wed. 11/2 and 11/9, 10 a.m. to noon. Location: College of Health and Human Services, Room #2089

The COVID-19 pandemic, although predicted by many, found us, nationally and globally, unprepared and left many of our community values shattered. We shall explore the challenges, both scientific and cultural, that we have experienced addressing the COVID-19 pandemic in this country.

Five Wishes

Instructor: Brendan Merians Dates and Time: Thurs. 11/10, 9 to 11 a.m. Location: StoryPoint, Media Room You can create your own power of medical attorney. The Five Wishes is similar to a Living Will that talks about your personal, emotional and spiritual needs as well as your medical wishes. I will walk you through the booklet with suggestions to help you make decisions that work best for you. You will also be provided with the additional paper needed for the state of Michigan. You will be able to create this document without an attorney present!