Dec 4, 2015
Member Spotlight
Move with Balance
Paia, Hawaii
Karen Peterson founded Move with Balance, an exercise program designed to help prevent falls and falls-related injuries in seniors in 2005. Upon receiving a grant from Alzheimer’s Foundation of America, Peterson set about creating a version of Move with Balance designed specifically for individuals with Alzheimer’s disease.
For this program, Move with Balance teamed with Maui Adult Day Care, to recruit 10 seniors who have Alzheimer’s or a related dementia and also recruited 10 loving and compassionate fit seniors to serve as their mentors. Each class begins with a 10-minute icebreaker. Mentees arrive and sit at a coloring table with their mentors participating in activities such as writing with both hands at the same time. This gives mentees a chance to connect with their mentors before heading into the classroom setting for the main program.
The mentees feel safe with their mentors and have formed warm and caring relationships. Many recognize their mentors week after week.
Apr 7, 2014
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.movewithbalance.org for information on our book, videos and recent study.
Mar 21, 2013
National magazine selects “Move With Balance: Healthy Aging Activities for Brain and Body” in its search for the best indie books of 2013.
Traverse City, MI, March 13, 2014 — Today “Foreword Reviews” the only review magazine solely dedicated to discovering new indie books, announced the finalists for its 16th Annual Book of the Year Awards. Each year, Foreword shines a light on a small group of indie authors and publishers whose groundbreaking work stands out from the crowd. Foreword’s awards are more than just a shiny sticker on the front of a book; they help connect the best indie books to readers eager to discover new stories written by previously unknown authors. (more…)
Mar 10, 2010
Merit Finalist, Mutual of America Foundation. 10 innovative programs are nominated for special recognition, and are encouraged to begin replication of their program. See the full recognition article here.
Sep 1, 2009
KGMB, channel 9 in Honolulu, HI. Karen Peterson was featured on the Genius of Aging, a televised show honoring 5 of Hawaii’s elders. She was chosen as an example of a vital senior citizen, who conceived of an idea and then brought it to fruition in the community. (more…)
