Neil Harris, a workplace and community health and wellness consultant led a National Seniors Day lunch and learn at the Legacy Centre last Thursday. Harris spoke about the four stages of retirement and resilience in aging. Geoff Lee Meridian Source
It was a senior leading seniors during a National Seniors Day lunch and learn at the Lloydminster Legacy Centre.
More than 120 seniors turned out to hear well known semi-retiree, Neil Harris deliver a presentation on the four stages of retirement and resilience in aging last Thursday.
It was seniors week in Saskatchewan from Oct. 1 to 7 as well.
Harris set the tone by introducing himself as a workplace and community health and wellness consultant with a unique PhD that stands for pretty happy dude.
“I try not to let life take me down,” said Harris at the podium.
“I’m semi retired. I’m doing some contract work right now. I’m able to fit the things I want to fit in and work when I want to, so it’s quite flexible.”
Harris’ talk is based on a book by researcher Dr. Riley Moynes who likens the first stage of retirement to being on a vacation that lasts about a year.
He says the next stage is loss and feeling lost before the experimental stage where you try any number of activities to gain a sense of purpose.
Harris says the fourth stage is what Moynes calls squeezing the juice out retirement by giving back to others as Harris is doing right now.
“In doing so you fulfill things for yourself. You get back out to the community; you’re connected. You’re active; you’ve got a reason to get up in the morning,” he said.
Harris is doing just that on his contract with Jordan’s Principle, a federal government program helping First Nations in Canada access the products, services and supports they need.
Harris also had some other topics in mind to cover during his presentation.
“We’re going to be mentioning some other things like touching around resilience and how to be resilient in our senior years and a little bit about mental health,” he said.
“Part of the presentation will be about loneliness and isolation and how to overcome that.”
Harris also planned to touch on financial health and why that’s important.
“It’s kind of a combination of all those things,” he said.
He says with baby boomers moving into retirement in large numbers, retirement is a timely topic.
The annual event is a partnership between Lloydminster Family and Community Support Services (FCSS) and Lloydminster Learning Council Association.
“We are very fortunate to have Neil Harris here today, a local speaker, someone who knows the local community and someone who has experience with retirement,” said FCSS manager social programs and services, Patrick Lancaster.
“We want to make sure folks are well prepared for that transition and can be strong and resilient as they go through retirement.”
The event was also an opportunity to promote the city’s senior taxi program and the recreation access program for low income people of any age to get reduced access rates to use city facilities.
“The learning council is also sharing information targeted towards seniors,” said Lancaster.
The council also secured some funding from the federal New Horizons for Seniors Program.
“We were able to partly fund this project and organize this event,” said learning council executive director, Maria Sarcauga.
“This is an important event for seniors because we have identified a topic that would be of interest to them—the stages of retirement,” she said.
“This is ideal for them to see what stage they are in now and cope with the issues of aging and being a senior citizen.”
Many seniors also took in free city tours to the artifact warehouse and Lloydminster Museum and Archive Oct. 3-4.
