Paula Sikes, Director of Resident Engagement at Cogir Senior Living, joins Suzanne to talk about the benefits of community to our health. Social wellness is a focus in this summer's Vitality Revolution podcast series. Cogir's senior living program is called Cadence senior living, the acronym CADENCE standing for C (cognitive) A (active) D (dementia) E (expressive) N (nourishing) C (community) E (environmental). Paula is the Director of Resident Engagement for Cogir Senior Living. Social wellness is more than just sitting down with friends, dating someone, or having a relationship. It's having fulfillment that you're an active participant in the world.

Paula says, "We call our communities, communities, not facilities. And there's a reason for that, because we have the idea of community inside of the larger community. And inside of our communities, we call our neighborhood. So our independent living is a neighborhood. Our assisted living is a neighborhood, and our memory care is a neighborhood. It's all encompassing. We'd like to see our communities — we have 65 across the nation right now — have autonomy and do their own thing, because all of our residents are different, our staffs are different. But yet we have one goal, and that goal is to make sure that our residents are living a whole life wellness, with a whole life mentality."

• Cogir's website
• More Cogir podcasts
• More Cadence podcasts
• Vitality Revolution podcast series
• More Social Wellness podcasts
• Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks