The Birth Of O.W.L (Older Wiser Livelier) How did it begin?
Mental health is slowly gaining the importance that it deserves, and rightly so because a healthy mind is one of the most important factors for living a good life. All of us have experienced many changes in our day-to-day living in the past decade and more so after Covid. As a result, many elders now end up living by themselves, away from their children. Retirement, loss of a spouse, nuclear families, various health ailments, etc. play a vital role in affecting their mental health.
An experience that led to the birth of Happiness Hamper
After the first wave of COVID, Our team received a call from a lady in the USA who was worried about her father. A military man for over 30 years, the lady’s father was in a very senior post until his retirement. The man had lost his wife which ultimately led to a big void in his life.
The COVID outbreak made it impossible for the lady to come to India to visit her father who was beginning to feel low and irritable. Our team suggested that a geriatric counseling program would help her father engage in meaningful and intellectually stimulating activities to address his loneliness. During our initial assessment, we found that this gentleman had lived an active life which became monotonous and led to a loss of interest, and motivation, and added irritation. It was evident that the lack of being productively occupied caused this decline in his quality of life.
Things started taking a positive turn when our team began visiting this gentleman thrice a week and engaging him in intellectual conversations that included politics, sports, and daily affairs as well as customized cognitively stimulating games based on his interests and hobbies. He started looking forward to these visits saying “इन बातों के साथ मेरा समय कैसे निकल जाता है पता ही नहीं चलता. काश मुझे ऐसा कुछ मिले जो मुझे दिन भर बिजी रखें”.
(“Time passes by so quickly with these sessions! I wish there was something that would keep me occupied the whole day”).
Encouraged by his positive response, we explored the same with other elders and interestingly received similar responses. We realized the need for such activities and the positive impact they would create. Something that would keep them meaningfully occupied, and motivated, and give them a sense of purpose.
What started as simple assignments to be done during counseling sessions, eventually grew into activity booklets that included games that targeted skills like memory, logic & reasoning, visuospatial ability, problem-solving, and more.
This is when a group of passionate individuals including psychologists, content writers, and creative artists came together and O.W.L ( Older Wiser Livelier) was born!!
Keeping in mind the motto of geriatric counseling; to help elders age gracefully the concept of O.W.L for Elders was launched as a potential solution that focuses on the happiness quotient in elders.
The Team
The O.W.L. team is a group of passionate individuals including psychologists, creative artists, and content writers who have spent a significant amount of time working with elders from various cultures. The valuable insight and knowledge gained through working with the elders for over a decade gave them an in-depth understanding of the unique challenges of aging and equipped them to develop solutions and strategies that addressed needs specific to the process of aging.
This hamper also provides an opportunity for children, grandchildren, or anyone in the family to subscribe and gift elders with something curated specially for them.
