August 20, 2020

Getting Creative to Stay Connected

About Brookdale Senior Living

Brookdale Senior Living offers multiple care levels for seniors in more than 600 communities nationwide. Brookdale helps you find the right care plan for yourself or your loved one. With amenities such as transportation services, salons and private dining rooms and activities such as gardening, fitness classes and trivia nights Brookdale caters to a wide range of interests and needs.

Sometimes when family and friends are far away, we have to get crafty with how we’re staying connected. It’s not as easy as meeting up with your friends at a restaurant or going on a group walk, but there are other ways to get your daily dose of social interaction. Thanks to some creative ideas and the assistance of social media, you can have game nights, lunch dates and casual visits even when you're apart.

Here are some creative ideas for staying connected with your loved ones.

Have a Family Party on Skype & Zoom

If you’re missing face-to-face connection, Skype and Zoom are both platforms that make video conferencing easier to manage. With a computer and an internet connection — or just a smartphone and data plan — you can download either app for free. Once your family members create their own accounts, invite them to chat. After you’re all connected, catching up will be a breeze.

Want to make it more exciting? Find a theme! Everyone can wear their silliest hats for a funky hat party or order a pizza and have a pizza party!

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A post shared by Brookdale Senior Living (@brookdaleliving) on May 20, 2020 at 4:00pm PDT

Go Live on Facebook & Instagram

Social media is one of the best ways to stay connected. You can post your own updates and share photos of what you’ve been getting up to at home all while keeping tabs on your favorite people.

Both Facebook and Instagram have options to go live, too, so you can share your day and broadcast in real time. Spending some time in your garden? Invite your friends to tune in and chat with you! Starting a new crafts project? Post to your Story so your friends can follow along. And, if you prefer more one-on-one chatting, you can always send private messages, voice messages and video chats. As an additional tip, be sure to double check that your preferred privacy settings are applied before sharing!

Take a Walk Together Over FaceTime

If you have an iPhone, iPad or MacBook, FaceTime already comes included on your device — no need to download. As long as your loved one also has an Apple device, using FaceTime is as simple as making a phone call. Open the FaceTime app on your phone, find your desired contact and place the call. Bring your phone along on a morning walk and get a friend to do the same. Use FaceTime to call them up and it’ll be like you’re taking a walk together!

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A post shared by Brookdale Senior Living (@brookdaleliving) on Jun 11, 2020 at 2:00pm PDT

Want more senior-friendly tech advice? Take a look at our Tech for Seniors blog post.

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