Move With Balance® is on the Move with Area Agencies on Aging
Baltimore County, MD is hosting Move With Balance® classes in September. Little Rock, AK is having a Move With Balance® training on September 5! More information can be found here.
Healthy Aging Activities for Brain and Body
April 10, 2014. Neal Howard interviewed Karen Peterson on Health Professional Radio, an internet-based radio stream tailored and targeted exclusively for the health professional. The “More” link will take you to where the audio can be played, as well as a complete written transcript of this interview.
American Society on Aging Blog
Republished from American Society on Aging website: April 7 2014
Move With Balance, which won the ASA 2012 MindAlert Award, has several exciting developments to share. Receiving the award gave us a hefty push to write a book, Move With Balance®: Healthy Aging Activities for Brain and Body,and create 60 online videos so others could easily replicate our program. And we published an evidence-based study in the November 2013 issue of Hawai’i Journal of Medicine & Public Health.
Now our program is available to group leaders, caregivers and individuals. The brightly illustrated book, which links to 60 online demonstration videos, is loaded with dozens of movements and exercises that even the frailest elder can accomplish. The payoff: increased coordination, sharper cognitive skills, better vision and enhanced self-confidence.
Since publishing Move With Balance®: Healthy Aging Activities for Brain and Body, the book has won two national awards. In September 2013 the Jenkins Group awarded it a bronze medal Living Now Book Award, which celebrates innovation and creativity, while encouraging better living. In March 2014 Foreword Reviews selected Move With Balance®: Healthy Aging Activities for Brain and Body as a Finalist in its Book of the Year Award. This award is for the best Independently Published books of 2013. Winners will be announced in June 2014. More info.
Our evidence-based study, called “An Exercise Program to Prevent Falls in Institutionalized Elderly with Cognitive Deficits: A Crossover Pilot Study,” was published in the November 2013 edition of the Hawai’i Journal of Medicine & Public Health. Study results demonstrate that the Move With Balance program is 66 percent effective in preventing falls. Dr. Lorrin Pang, study author and Maui District Health Officer, is now working on a cost-benefit analysis of Move With Balance. More info.
Move with Balance Founder Karen Peterson has developed a program with a therapeutic approach that integrates the motor, sensory and vestibular systems of the brain, and is particularly beneficial to older adults.
“By building on the reality of neural plasticity and the brain’s ability to be shaped across the lifespan, Move With Balance understands the positive outcomes of caring for our cognitive, motor and spiritual selves,” says Dr. Paul Nussbaum, clinical neuropsychologist and adjunct profession of Neurological Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Dr. Nussbaum hosts the Brain Health Forum each year at the American Society on Aging conference.
We would love to help you start Move With Balance, with its unique combination of balance, strength training and cognitive skills training, in your community. Visit www.site.movewithbalance.com for information on our book, videos and recent study.
Middle Age Can Be Your Best Age: Radio Show Interviews
Join host Roy Richards and guest Karen Peterson as they discuss healthy aging and Move With Balance®. (Interview approximately 20 minutes). Roy and his guests confront common midlife career, lifestyle and relationship challenges and point the way to a brighter tomorrow. You can listen to the show by clicking here.
Move With Balance® on Kaua’i
Kar
en, good morning to you and everyone at Giving Back!
Upon my arrival to the island of Kauai, after spending a year on Maui having the privilege of working with Karen Peterson at one of the Assisted Living Sites as a mentor, I knew I wanted to share the goodness she has created because of the love she has for the aging population.
I shared with her early in our relationship; I vowed to offer the Move with Balance concept and practices with others. This I have done, by implementing two offerings at sites, one at the Friendship House (mentally challenged), and the other, an Adult Day Care Center. There we provided a few mentors to work with our mentees throughout a 10 week time period.
Karen was invited over to do a community presentation, and participate in a Health and Wellness Expo in February, 2013; days after her book had just been printed. Many participants purchased books, visitors and residents alike delighted in her presence; as many of them knew first hand whether they were care takers, aging or providers the need for “mind alert” movements.
I have introduced these movements at the Lihue Senior Neighborhood Center, they love it and have me come back as often as my schedule allows.
I have been working with a physical therapist to offer classes in her private studio. She has been in communication with Karen, has started to expose the general population to the concept and her offerings.
I see and hear ONLY positive responses and appreciation from others once they are introduced to the concepts of the Move with Balance programming.
When I think of Karen Peterson’s work, I think of a phrase, “When you love what you do, you never work a day in your life”. She is passionate about her work, for that, I am very grateful on both a personal and professional level. I simply want to share her goodness with others.
Rachelle Bachran, MS
Public Health Educator
Hawaii State Department of Health