Tai chi funding cuts anger tutor
BY PENNY WARDLE
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Mark Witchalls is fuming that ACC has cut into funding for tai chi classes, which he has witnessed giving his elderly students a new lease of life.
In the past, ACC has funded modified tai chi classes under its falls prevention programme. Initially, these have been held in Blenheim twice a week for 20 weeks. Classes starting after January this year have been limited to 16 classes held once a week.
Mr Witchalls finishes tutoring a 20-session course in two weeks. Practising the slow, gentle movements of tai chi improved his 14 students' balance, co-ordination, flexibility, lower leg strength and physical confidence, he said. Just as valuable was the social stimulation provided.
From not knowing one another, the class of mostly over-80s had become a "tight bunch" following up their tai chi lesson with a coffee at a nearby cafe and kept in touch through the week.
The physical benefits of the class were clear, said Mr Witchalls. When the classes began, six people required chairs to steady them when they exercised. Three or four weeks later, no chairs were needed.
Seventy-nine-year-old Tom Bourne had a minor stroke some years ago but said with regular tai chi his balance had improved. One participant who was initially shaky on her feet was now able to stand on one leg and put a sock on, he said.
"I have never known a group of people to work together as well," said Mr Bourne. "Mark is a great communicator and a melder of people as well."
Mr Witchalls' motivation to run the tai chi courses was observation of how destructive and demoralising isolation from society could be for groups like the elderly.
This awareness came from employing people with mental disabilities in the Blenheim Foods business he runs with his wife, Shelly. He brought to the job a background in karate which he still practises despite having had both knees replaced.
After 14 classes, his students had only just learned the 12 basic moves of this modified "sung" tai chi, he said. Slashing classes from 40 to 16 sessions would severely restrict the benefits.
"The brain is like a hard drive which, as you get old, nearly reaches its limit," he said.
"For these people, learning something as new as tai chi takes a lot of time and effort."
When they have finished his course, Mr Witchalls' students will be eligible to enrol in a weekly maintenance class with another tutor with advanced training, paying $4 a week. These classes are provided by Presbyterian Support.
Mr Witchalls contracts to Presbyterian Support's Enliven Positive Aging Services to run the tai chi programme.
The organisation's upper South Island chief executive, Vaughan Milner, has said that its contract to run modified tai chi classes was guaranteed until December. He was concerned that tight budgets and priority changes would see the contract axed.
"There's a sense that falls-prevention funding is not seen to be core ACC business any longer," he said.
An ACC spokeswoman said a decision had not been made on whether to continue funding tai chi classes.
Last year ACC pulled funding for the Otago exercise programme which taught elderly people strength and balance exercises in their home and said it would concentrate on tai chi classes that reached a wider group.
How to join
Elderly people are invited to join modified tai chi classes being run in Blenheim this year.
Falls prevention co-ordinator Loreto Maher, of Enliven Positive Ageing Services, said the classes were open to people aged 65 years and over who had fallen in the last 12 months or were experiencing problems with balance.
Those enrolling were required to live in the community, including in villas attached to rest homes.
Classes were held in Blenheim at the St Andrews Hall, Henry Street and Redwoodtown Community Centres and the Picton RSA at a range of times and dates. "ACC research indicates that tai chi reduces falls by 47 per cent," she says.
Participants in previous courses had noted improved breathing, fitness, posture, flexibility, balance and alertness.
"I am breathing better and more deeply," one person told her. "My thinking processes are more alert and clear. I'm sleeping well. My blood pressure is down. I can turn my head easier to back the car and can now turn my whole body."
An assessment is required to attend modified tai chi classes, says Ms Maher, who can be contacted at 577 9005.
- The Marlborough Express
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