MHA (Methodist Homes) is an award-winning charity providing care, accommodation and support services for older people throughout Britain. It is our mission to improve the quality of life of older people inspired by Christian concern.

Through the provision of 130 chaplains across MHA’s facilities and schemes we are committed to caring and meeting the needs of older people in body, mind and spirit.

Today we support these people through our unique blend of care homes, community and retirement living schemes embedded in local communities.

As the largest charity in the sector, we invest all our donated income and any surplus we generate into developing and enhancing the services we are able to offer.
 
We deliver a range of high quality services to more than 19,000 individuals:
 
•  11,500 older people supported through 62 Live at Home schemes in the community
 
•  3,000 older people living independently in 68 retirement living communities with    flexible support and personalised care
 
•  4,500 older people living in 90 care homes providing residential, nursing and specialist dementia care
 
Biblical Yoga for Older People

Biblical Yoga is a unique combination of Bible story and armchair exercise and is a recent development at MHA written and developed by one of our Chaplains, Yvonne Myers who works at MHA Amathea Care Home in Cumbria.

The informal and interactive approach has been recognised by staff in the home and won the prize for Innovation in Care at the 2018 MHA awards.

Biblical Yoga is a low impact and low intensity designed for older and frailer adults and for those with disabilities. The benefits of regular gentle chair-based exercise have been well documented for older people in care home settings. Regular exercise helps older people to stay mobile, more alert and reduces the risk of falls.  Movement and exercise are an important part of our health.

Linking the movements of yoga movements with reciting the Bible stories results in participants benefitting from both mental and physical stimulation, which combines to enhance wellbeing.

We plan to deliver this project through a series of events titled Worship Engagement in Later Life events (WELL).

The training sessions will be delivered by experienced Chaplains and Dementia Care Specialists through the WELL events at various church locations. The learnings of this training will then be disseminated through the wider communities where these specialists work. The training will be open to people of all faiths in this area and will be partly delivered by video which will then be followed by demonstrations and question and answer sessions. These 6 events will be held around the UK from October until November 2019.

The training including Biblical Yoga will then be cascaded by worship leaders into local communities and multi-generational church services.
Through the sharing of this good practice we aim to transform people’s wellbeing and involvement in worship.

For more information, contact details, or to come along to our training events please see this flyer.