St. Joseph's gets iPads to promote brain health

St. Joseph’s Health Centre's two long-term care homes in Greater Sudbury now have iPads for their recreational programming.

St. Joseph’s Villa and St. Gabriel Villa each received four iPads to take advantage of a multitude of educational apps to promote brain health and emotional well-being, a press release said.

“The Life Enrichment Department has always provided a wide variety of social and physical activities designed to entertain residents, maintain social skills as well as improve the physical health and functional abilities of those admitted to long-term care,” said Jo-Anne Palkovits, the administrator of both long-term care homes.

Residents now have access to math and spelling applications, memory and recall games, both visual and audio.

Sensory applications and specialized trivia games for residents with dementia such as Best Guess, created by DementiAbility, are also available and in use.

Besides the numerous cognitive applications available, physical apps such as chair yoga and tai chi for seniors are also accessible if a resident wanted to complete an individual routine outside of a large group program.