Residents at Rockwood Retirement Communities South Hill can choose between a mind aerobics class that has challenging mental quizzes or a session in modified yoga. Another time, they can hear a nutritional speaker, get a posture analysis, or go on an organized five-mile walk.

In fact, Rockwood's seniors hear about many coordinated wellness options in a program designed to have a holistic approach to benefit mind, body, and spirit, rather than simply a grouping of activities, says Brenda Jurich, a full-time wellness director.

Rockwood Retirement Communities, the big nonprofit retirement-housing provider owned by Spokane United Methodist Homes, started its wellness program eight years ago and calls it Personal Rewards through Involvement, Dedication and Education (PRIDE). Rockwood offers the program at its two retirement facilities, Rockwood South Hill and one on Spokane's North Side named Rockwood at Hawthorne.

"We developed our own components of wellness to meet the needs of our residents, the older adult person we serve here," says Jurich, adding that the wellness focus includes physical, mental, spiritual, intellectual, vocational, and social elements. "This is something we want to grow in our culture and own."

Jurich says a number of retirement communities today are doing more to offer activities to keep seniors active mentally and physically. Rockwood's wellness program has received state and national recognition in recent years, she adds, and has a high level of participation among its residents. The approach integrates six components: personal health, physical fitness, safety, nutrition, mental health, and continuing relationships.

Between 60 percent and 70 percent of about 350 independent-living senior residents at the 90-acre Rockwood South Hill campus participate in the program, Jurich estimates. While the coordinated approach also is offered for about 110 people at the Hawthorne facility, fewer of the mostly assisted-living residents there are able to participate.

Jurich, a certified fitness instructor, says the program fits with a United Methodist Homes mission to serve residents with honor and dignity, and to help them maintain quality of life. She adds that a group representing different Rockwood Retirement departments meets quarterly to keep a focus on PRIDE's offerings. Committee members include herself, a social worker, an executive director of nursing, a pastor, two activity directors, two nursing staff members, and the community center manager.

"We all beat the same drum," Jurich says, about why Rockwood Retirement residents tend to stay engaged in the program's choices. "We're all moving in the same direction, so residents hear the same message of helping them maintain control of their lives."

Rockwood's PRIDE program received a national award in 2007 from the LeadingAge Association, a national nonprofit supporting a network of aging-services organizations. The state Aging Services of Washington also has recognized Rockwood's wellness program, once in 2002 and again in 2006.

The typical age of Rockwood's participants is between 82 and 84, although Jurich says she's seeing more active seniors closer to age 65, who are what she calls senior athletes and who are seeking higher-level fitness activities at the community.

The South Hill campus offers 20 to 25 group fitness classes weekly at different levels of intensity, from gentle exercise movements with participants seated in a chair to 30-minute interval kickboxing. Activities also are offered a couple of times a week in the assisted-living area. Additionally, the center has a walking program, exercise programs for its pool, and two separate fitness areas with treadmills, stationary bikes, and other equipment.

Jurich is the only full-time fitness instructor and wellness director, and she has two part-time contract fitness instructors. As part of her role as wellness director, Jurich meets with each new resident and offers regular fitness assessments. She is certified as a personal trainer by the American Council on Exercise and has advanced health and fitness specialist certification that involves the special needs of an older population.

Virginia Murphy, a Rockwood South Hill resident, says that taking a class called Gentle Moves three times a week helps her mobility.

"Otherwise, you won't exercise half your body if you didn't," she says. "It helps a lot. It gets to where you can move better. I play Yahtzee once a week. They have all kinds of good programs, and people who come in and talk to us."

Another resident, Viola Boese, who has lived there since October with her husband, Ralph, says she mostly likes the program's travel and entertainment options, as well as bowling offered through a Wii video game console. Ralph Boese adds, "Exercising in a group has so many advantages. You enjoy the group, and the time just goes by."

As part of the continuing relationships component, people living in the Rockwood community can volunteer as a PRIDE friend to be matched with another Rockwood resident in the skilled-nursing care area, or its memory care center, to read stories or visit regularly.

Other sessions have included one in which a full-time campus pastor talked about such topics as handling grief during the holidays, and another in which a St. Luke's Rehabilitation Institute specialist offered tips for lowering the risk of stroke. The center also gave cane- and walker-safety evaluations to avoid posture imbalances.

A class instructor leads the mind aerobics class once a week with brain teaser puzzles that include verbal trivia, word matches, memory games, quick-succession multiplication, and perhaps the reading of a short story followed up by questions.

"There might be a word match," Jurich explains. "Some are more complex. Sometimes we have handouts, and we always have homework. The class members love their homework."

Jurich says her annual budget ranges from $70,000 to $80,000 for fitness, which covers staffing, trips, and equipment. The funding comes mainly from an endowment created in 2002 specifically to support the PRIDE wellness exercise program, she adds.

"In 10 years, our residents have raised over $1 million for this fund," she says. "That just goes to show how important this wellness program is to them."

The committee also helps plan special week-long events.

"We call them PRIDE weeks, and we have several more workshops and incentives," Jurich adds. "We (committee members) all have our jobs, and it may be recruiting speakers or organizing an event."

For a week in May, for example, the South Hill campus's social worker and pastor are planning a workshop about balancing the caregiver's role. This oftentimes is a husband or wife who takes on the significant role of caregiver for a spouse due to a stroke or physical frailty.

"So they take that burden on and they start to lose themselves as they take care of a spouse," Jurich says. "We're a continuous-care facility, so maybe one member eventually ends up in our memory-care facility. By that time, the (spouse) isn't healthy themselves, so it's that continued education."

That is another reason why managers look for ways to coordinate the program, and to give residents back some control of their lives, she adds. If residents see a positive outcome, they're going to engage more fully in all the different dimensions of wellness, she adds.

"We start to lose pieces of ourselves if we start to lose parts of our lives, such as having a son take over finances," she says. "Driving is huge. The world gets smaller because of incontinence, or the body breaks down and you have to give up golf. Those are little losses that chip away at a life that affect quality of life."

Jurich adds, "We try to provide opportunities for them to continue to learn, to stay involved, and maintain quality of life."