Keeping seniors healthy & connected
Julie Okamura, MSPT (SAR‘91) is the owner of Hoku Physical Therapy in Honolulu, Hawaii. She provides mobile post-rehab, prevention, and wellness physical therapy services, with a focus on the geriatric population. Her daughter, Michele (SAR‘23), is a second-year student in the combined BS/DPT program.
“Mom, do you think I could come home for Spring Break?” my daughter, Michele, asked tentatively.
It was February of 2020, the second semester of her freshman year at BU. While she was enjoying her newfound college life, she reasoned that she needed a chance to “warm up a little” and see the dog. I gave my consent, never imagining that she would spend the rest of that semester… and the next… and the next… at home, completing her college classes online from our kitchen table.
As our lives were upended by the pandemic, we communicated frequently with my parents in Northern California. California’s record-breaking heat waves, multiple wildfires throughout the state, and the worst Covid-19 infection rates in the nation took its toll on the residents there, especially the most vulnerable senior population. My parents and their friends, all of whom had been active in the community, were now shut in their homes, unable to travel and separated from their families and each other.
In June, I worked with the Physical Therapist Assistant Summer Telehealth Program at our local community college, providing instruction for students who were not able to complete in-person clinical internships due to Covid-19 restrictions and clinic closures. Our “patients” were volunteers from the community with various physical disabilities who met online in small exercise groups led by the students. I was skeptical at first about whether a safe and effective exercise program could be provided via telehealth, but I soon learned that despite not being in-person, the participants enjoyed the opportunity to socialize and interact with the students, were motivated by the presence of the others in the group and showed progress with the exercises. With careful planning and instruction, the program could be delivered safely.
My independent service project for this year’s Global Days of Service emerged from these pandemic experiences. In January, I launched the Morning Exercise Group for my parents and several of their close friends who reside in California, Hawaii, and Arizona. These dedicated and enthusiastic seniors meet on Zoom three times a week for 40-minute sessions. We listen to Hawaiian music for inspiration as we work on strength, flexibility, balance, and cardio to combat the effects of deconditioning, resulting from a year of being indoors.
The program has been designed to allow the members to participate with the group while modifying the exercises to their individual abilities. As the exercise strengthens our bodies, the connection established by this virtual gathering of friends lifts our spirits and sustains us as we continue to navigate our way through these uncertain times together, ever hopeful for better days to come.
Throughout the month of April, alumni and friends around the world come together and give their time and energy to support hundreds of non-profits. Global Days of Service provides an opportunity for the BU community to come together and make an impact in local communities by driving change locally and globally. Over the past 11 years, volunteers like you have helped serve over 162,000 hours.