Activities & Wellbeing
Holistic Wellbeing
At Marepi, we believe that clinical excellence and spotless hospitality are necessary but not sufficient conditions for healthy ageing. That is exactly why we have adopted an approach to care that attaches high value to our residents’ holistic wellbeing. By holistic, we essentially mean the three wellbeing pillars that can affect, prolonge and enrich elderly lifespan:
Physical
Mental
Emotional
Physical wellbeing is about maintaining the elderly body at an optimal state, given each resident’s individual vulnerabilities and health conditions. It refers to all physical activity that alleviates pain or increases strength and balance.
Mental wellbeing is about the general mental health and cognitive readiness of our elderly residents. It refers to the sum of physical, social, creative and recreational activities that have a positive impact in our resident’s mind, exercising, pleasing and relieving it.
Emotional wellbeing is about responding to the inner needs, concerns, and wishes of the elderly heart. It’s about intelligently decoding the unspoken elderly language and offering our residents an environment of emotional stability and support that nourishes their soul.
Physical Wellbeing
Marepi has introduced a comprehensive physical exercise programme tailored for elderly needs, that has been running with great success throughout the past years. We pride in partnering with practitioners and academics, and participating in a novel research program on Geriatric Physical Exercise, the first of its kind in Greece. Since the inception of the programme by our physical therapists specialised in elderly health, we have been amazed ourselves by the positive impact in our residents physical, mental and emotional state. What started as an experimental programme has been greeted with such excitement by our residents and caregivers, that is now a core aspect of the Marepi offering. We currently run biweekly, group exercise sessions, with increasing numbers of our residents expressing their willingness to join, especially as they notice the positive effect in their mood and agility.
Our trained physical therapist employs a variety of safe, easy-to-follow, motivational techniques, informed by the sensitivities and special needs of the elderly body. Most of the physical group exercise programme is performed through a gamelike interaction, that guides, supports and rewards our elderly participants. We place particular emphasis in the recreational aspect of it, grabbing the opportunity to help our residents’ physical condition, through vivid entertainment. Our physical exercise group sessions are moments of laughter, play, energy, togetherness and empowerment through community bonding. They are moments of relief, satisfaction and tangible proof that a healthily ageing body is not only attainable but a goal to be fervently pursued.
Our physical exercise programme can be complemented upon request by individual physiotherapy and kinesiotherapy sessions. They can both be of particular help to elderly patients in rehabilitation and respite care, after operations or accidents. They can also be provided in view of slowing down the effects of chronic conditions, such as dementia, or speeding up recovery from sudden health changes, such as strokes.
Socialisation, Recreation & Creativity Events
Marepi is a community, a warm environment of companionship and togetherness. We want your lifestyle in Marepi to mirror your emerging elderly needs, while nourishing you with activities and events that are self-fulfilling and inherently interesting to you. We want you to be engaged members of the Marepi family, not passive residents. We want you to feel included, energised, active, enthusiastic about this stage of your life. We want your family members and caregivers to see you productive and happy, to see you at an environment where you keep growing, not in age but in personal progress. Inevitably, with the passing of time your needs, interests and socialisation needs might change. There is a silver lining between self-retreat, independence, personal space and maintaining a stimulating social life. We are here to create this balance for you and your families, make Marepi the centre of your social life. We want to be the home where the lights are always on, the home that’s always open to guests, the home where laughter and chit-chatting is always the background noise. We have put together a rich lifestyle and social programme for our residents, trying to give both variety and motivation to attend. Our activities vary across seasons, but we love establishing our small ‘Marepi rituals’ that will keep you looking forward to repeating them. Some of which are the following:
Creative Activities
We organise a series of activities that inspire and awake the creative instincts of our residents. We urge them them to draw, paint and create their own unique handcrafts with our guidance. We employ specialised social workers for that purpose, creative geniuses, who observe the team dynamics and the individuals interests of our residents. Based on that they curate and lead activities that stimulate their imagination and awake their most gifted side. We also like to engage our residents in short culinary workshops, such as preparing the Greek traditional, homemade treat ‘koulourakia’. We always like showcasing this artistic work around our premises, so look around for it! Especially, during Christmas, Carnival, Easter, and Spring time, you will find all sorts of handmade crafts in our common areas and rooms! Keep an eye for the personalised carnival masks and 1st of May flower wreaths!
Religious Celebrations
Religion is a very prominent aspect of lifestyle in our culture, something especially true for our elders. At Marepi, we follow, respect and embrace occasions for religious celebration, seeing them as excellent opportunity to bond and unite in our common faith. The overwhelming majority of our residents rejoice in such religious events, so we try to incorporate them to their daily and yearly lifestyle as much as possible. We organise celebratory gatherings and events on religious holiday, such as our dedicated carol singing days during Christmas, and our litany during Easter, among others. They are both exceptional occasions for our residents and families to meet and greet, socialise and rejoice in our faith and community spirit. We also give the option of fasting during key religious occasions, along with the option of receiving the holy communion in our premises, in coordination with our local church.
Singing & Dancing Parties
We take all occasions for music to flood our corridors and common areas! We invite bands and choirs to entertain and uplift our residents and families. We also gladly accept offers from other creative communities to come showcase their talents to our residents and staff. For instance, on the occasion of Greek carnival, we put together an entire social programme and we convert Marepi into a lively 5-storey party place! We dress up, we sing and dance, we take lots of photos smiling and doing silly things. We are embodying the Marepi vibes and we encourage you all to be part of it!
Art, Theatre & Cinema
At Marepi, we strongly believe that art nourishes your soul, so we bring it at your doorstep! You will find paintings we love all across our building, while most of the times, classical music is playing in the background in all our common areas (and if you wish so, at your room, as well.) We also host theatrical plays by talented theatrical ensembles, while we like experimenting with all sorts of artistic expression, like Shadow Theatre (Greek Karagiozi). We are also currently converting one of our common areas into a cinema room, so stay tuned for our upcoming immersive events schedule!