Nintendo Wii making waves at nursing homes

Evelyn Grant, a resident at the Good Samaritan Society of Le Mars, learns how to bowl on the Nintendo Wii with a little help from Wellness and Recreation Director Becky Sitzmann. Care centers are adding the Wii to their activities because it helps residents use motion and hand-eye coordination. [Click to enlarge]

Your 13-year-old son wasn't the only one with a Nintendo Wii on his Christmas wishlist.

Area assisted living and nursing homes can't wait to get their hands on the game system.

Good Samaritan Society of Le Mars just got one, and the residents are dabbling in video games like bowling and tennis.

Why? The Wii's new twist on video games -- incorporating arm motions with a motion-sensitive control bar the players holds -- makes the games accessible for the elderly.

"It allows them to participate in sport activities, and they can still be sitting in their chair if they want," said Good Samaritan's Wellness and Recreation director Becky Sitzmann. "And it brings them up to date with technology."

Evelyn Grant, a Good Samaritan resident, hasn't bowled since she was a 4-H leader and brought her club to the lanes decades ago.

Now she might join the first virtual bowling league at Good Samaritan. With the Wii, Grant can hit the lanes again, and she can do it without leaving the building or having to stand up, and without ever having to pick up a 14-pound ball. She's tried bowling on the Wii a few times, and she's getting the hang of it.

"It's fun if you learn how to do it," she said. "I've got a lot of gutter balls."

But she also threw a strike, she admitted with a smile

Jeannette Langholdt, another resident, said the Wii is pretty easy to learn how to play. She's been bowling a few times at Good Samaritan and likes it already.

"It's just something different," she said. "I think I might try tennis next."

Good Samaritan bought the Wii after someone donated some money to update their media.

They'd been hearing about the Wii and how it could help build residents' core mobility and hand-eye coordination, plus give a little bit of mobility and exercise. So with the donation, they bought the system.

At first, Sitzmann said, the residents were a little hesitant about trying the games.

"When you introduce something to the older generation, it's always different," Sitzmann said. "But we had them come down and watch people play, and it's not as intimidating once they see someone esle try it."

A big buzzword with the Wii is "intergenerational."

"One of the main reasons they built the Wii was to appeal to other age groups, to market it to different demographics than just teenagers," explained Dana Plath, interim administrator at Good Samaritan.

"The residents will hear their grandkids talking about the Wii and they'll have something in common," Sitzmann said.

Their hope is that grandkids and families will visit their granparents and be able to play the Wii together.

"And we'd like to have students from Gehlen and Le Mars Community Schools come in and teach the residents how to play," Plath added.

Resident Dorothy Madden lined up a shot on a split.

"It's fun once you get the hang of it," she said, noting that her grandson lives in the area and might like to play the game with her.

"Oh, he'd try anything once," she laughed.

For Michelle Ten Napel, activities coordinator at Park Place Estates retirement community, the Nintendo Wii is still on their wishlist.

Ten Napel agreed that the game system was a great thing for people of different generations to share.

"It's something we could have available when grandkids came to visit," Ten Napel suggested. "What a fun thing to do with Grandpa and Grandma."

Plymouth Manor Care Center, along with Park Place, still is hoping to buy a Wii -- mostly to give their residents an outlet for do-able activity.

"It's so active," Ten Napel said. "You're getting people up doing things they used to do. Due to arthritis or aging, they might not be able to hold a 12-pound bowling ball, but they can hold a controller."

And logistically, she noted, it works well for care centers.

"You don't need a lot of space for it, and most facilities already have the TV, so all you need is the game system," Ten Napel said. "Storage in a facility can be a big issue -- where do you keep the bowling balls and the ten pins, and where do you have a safe place to play it."

The games the Wii offers can be more than just a passing activity, she pointed out. They can be a way to reminisce or connect with the things people used to do.

So many people were in a golf league or a bowling league, she said, and in a way assisted living and nursing homes can re-invent those leagues with a Wii at their facilities.

And residents, she added, can use the boxing game to get out their frustrations for the day or be Muhammed Ali for an afternoon. Or they can golf and be Tiger Woods.

Or they can just watch the action.