Never too old to get back on the bike
Guy Arbez was riding along a roadway beside the Red River in Winnipeg. Dressed in his Shriners clown costume, “Giggles the Clown” piloted the tri-shaw, while his mother sat up front, enjoying the view as the pair rode through the shade under leafy trees.
“She was looking around at stuff, and explaining to me what she was seeing,” recalls Arbez of the ride during the August long weekend. “She was really watching attentively what was going on, as opposed to just sitting there having been dragged out.
“Being in the clown outfit drew some attention, so people were honking and waving, and my mom was waving back at them, thinking the attention was for her. It was quite cute.”
Arbez’s mother is a resident at the Riverview Health Centre and lives with dementia. Thanks to a new chapter of a worldwide program called Cycling Without Age, Arbez is able to take his mother out for bicycle rides in a way that adds to her quality of life.
Cycling Without Age started in that bastion of progressive cycling – Copenhagen – in 2012. Now the program has chapters in 30 countries around the world. Since the clients in the program often face limited mobility, cwa uses tri-shaws, or trikes, each with a pair of wheels up front and the pilot riding behind a bench seat for two.
In Winnipeg, Michael Erlanger pulled together people and resources to create a chapter of cwa. The group worked with the Riverview Health Centre Foundation, of which Erlanger is a board member, and launched the program in May 2017. Since then, Health Centre staff have been working to get the program operating at capacity, though the effort hasn’t been without a few obstacles.
Sheldon Mindell, the executive director at Riverview, explained how the program has developed so far. “We’re really just getting started,” Mindell says. “Right now we need to train more volunteer pilots. But there are other considerations that may not be issues in Europe.” After each 20–30 minute ride, the program’s bike needs to be cleaned carefully and disinfected. Because of helmet regulations, passengers must be fitted with such safety equipment, which Riverview has purchased along with the bike. “We were finding each of these challenges as the program was developed,” Mindell says. “Now we’re at the point where the system is in place.”
Residents and family are already heading out for rides. As the system has become better known, its use has grown, too. “This program represents an opportunity to provide an improved quality of life to our residents,” Mindell says. “This program also represents an opportunity for our volunteer corps and for family members to provide a fun experience.”
For many residents, riding on a bicycle allows them to relive decades-old memories and excitement and allows family members to see their senior relatives in a new environment that is different from the typical retirement home setting. These experiences speak directly to the core principles of the cwa movement, especially around relationships. The program builds new connections between family, residents, staff and volunteers.
“The program is a lot like taking a child to see different cultures, in that it gives our residents access to greater mobility that improves the quality of their lives,” Mindell says.
“To see your parent living with dementia – she’s not who she was,” Arbez says. “The road to get her into the residence was a difficult one. By the time she got into the residence, she was quite angry at all the moves and changes along the way. Now, she’s done a full 180.
“Taking her out on the bike is the cherry on top. It’s one more thing that is adding to her happiness. That’s what it boils down to, to see her happy after everything she’s been through.”