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Library hosts event on aging
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Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.Park Vista of Youngstown communications media liaaison Beth Ann Tabak spoke at the Boardman library about how to better enter into the aging process.
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Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County development director Debbie Liptak (left) and Park Vista of Youngstown communications media liaison Beth Ann Tabak chatted before the start of the Changing the Way We Age event at the Boardman library.
By TIM CLEVELAND
As a way to help people better prepare for the aging process, on Sept. 24 the Boardman library hosted a program called Changing the Way We Age, in which Beth Ann Tabak, communications media liaison of Park Vista of Youngstown, an assisted living and rehab and skilled care facility located at 1216 Fifth Ave., spoke of different ways that people can face the aging process the best way they can.
“It’s really evaluating what we are doing as we move through life, how do we change ourselves through the six dimensions of wellness,” Tabak said. “People are living longer, which is great, but with that comes a lot of different disease and different problems associated with aging. So what do we do to preemptively strike those issues? How do we look at the physical dimensions of wellness, the emotional, the spiritual, vocational, all six dimensions of wellness?
“It’s also part of Active Aging Week, which Park Vista is an active aging campus. We’re celebrating Active Aging Week through the National Council of Active Aging, which happens the last week of September every year. It’s an acknowledgement that we all age, but we shouldn’t shun that, we should embrace it and live life to our fullest potential. This year’s theme is Let the Adventure Begin, so adventures big and small at any age.”
Tabak identified the six dimensions of wellness as physical, intellectual, social, vocational, spiritual and emotional.
“The big thing is staying active,” she said.
Tabak summarized different ways to stay active as walking around the block or taking an exercise class to stay physically active, doing mind games or puzzles to stay intellectually active, getting out and meeting new people to stay socially active, and getting active in your church or connecting with nature to stay spiritually active.
“There’s all sorts of different ways that you can remain active,” Tabak said. “That’s the basic gist of what we need to do to change the way we age.”