Taking the challenge and enhancing life

By MARTIN JOHNSTON health reporter

The concrete driveway leading uphill from Westharbour Lodge Rest Home is only 50m long but it is a big obstacle - long enough and steep enough to prevent all but three or four of the home's 40 residents, aged 60 to 100, from walking up or down it.

Harry Chapman, 84, a Westharbour Lodge resident for five years, is one of the lucky few. With a walking stick in hand, he now daily heads up the hill and along the footpath away from the West Auckland resthome.

Previously he had confined his outdoor walking to the home's carpark.

He started gradually extending his range a month ago before joining an Auckland University study on enhancing the independence of elderly people in resthomes through goal-setting and physical exercise.

"I feel as though I have achieved something, particularly today," said Mr Chapman when the Herald visited. He had for the first time walked to the Massey Library, about 500m from the home. One of his goals is to walk to the Westgate shopping centre, about 1km from the home.

He wants to visit his accountant son Graham Chapman, who works there, and go to a cafe with him. "I hope he will buy me a cup of coffee," he said.

"The study's organisers insist that I have a chaperone with me. I have got accustomed to it. It's mainly for crossing intersections.

"I haven't got many intersections to cross, but to achieve my ultimate object I have chosen a route that has no crossings. It's a bit further."

Since joining the study, Mr Chapman has doubled, to at least 10, the number of sit-stand-sit sequences he does in a session as well as increasing the other exercises.

He said he was in reasonable shape before joining, but now felt better off both physically and mentally.

In pursuit of his mental goal, which is to learn about computers and the internet, he intends to check out the library's facilities - now that he can walk there.