OLLI: Fun, with a Mental Health Boost

These programs for people over 50 create connection and learning opportunities, essential components of positive mental health.

The reason why most people join the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UMass Boston is simple: It looks like fun. What many members get out of it, however, is more substantial: a boost to mental health and well-being.

OLLI is a community of lifelong learning, offering programs to people over 50 in a variety of disciplines: history, the arts, science, wellness. Each year, the UMass Boston chapter, which is part of the Gerontology Institute, provides more than 200 learning opportunities, from Zoom lectures to in-person classes to international trips. While members join for the love (and fun) of learning and satisfying their curiosities, an enhancement of mental health often becomes a welcome byproduct of the experience.

“OLLI provides this sense of happiness while people take the courses, go on trips, and meet new people,” says Jim Hermelbracht, director of OLLI at UMass Boston. “They also gain confidence. We’ll hear people say that they surprised themselves, that they never thought they‘d be able to learn a particular thing or to do x, y, or z – and then they do. All of that adds up to create mental health benefits.”

Katherine Robinson, a certified Brain Longevity Therapist through the Alzheimer’s Research & Prevention Foundation, is an OLLI instructor. The research she’s done on cognitive health has shown her how powerful OLLI programs can be to mental health and well-being.

“It’s all about environment,” Robinson says. “These classes have an environment of hope and connection. In them, your neurochemicals are different. Your chemistry is different. It’s so important, especially for the aging process.”

The Medicine of Community and Learning

Mental health isn’t just mental health; there’s a strong correlation between mental health with physical, cognitive, and social health. For example, research shows that loneliness and isolation can increase an older adult’s risk for conditions such as heart disease, high blood pressure, depression, and anxiety. Countering that loneliness and isolation could bring cascading health improvements.

“One certain way of connecting people together is to engage them in a shared experience. That is what OLLI does,” says Caitlin Coyle, PhD, director of Center for Social & Demographic Research on Aging at the Gerontology Institute, who has researched the effects of isolation and loneliness on older adults. “Whether members are learning, traveling or dining — they are learning about one another, creating memories together, and building a sense of belonging to a group. Feelings of loneliness thrive in isolation, but shared experiences break that isolation with mutual presence and meaning.”

The variety of OLLI’s offerings—which include history lectures and literature classes and trips to the theater—create opportunities to learn across disciplines.

“OLLI offers an a la carte menu that lets people taste different tastes and be exposed to different things,” Robinson says.

This doesn’t just increase knowledge but also boosts cognitive health: One study showed that older adults who learned a new skill improved their memory and decreased their risk of Alzheimer’s disease. “The present results provide some of the first experimental evidence that learning new things and keeping the mind engaged may be an important key to successful cognitive aging,” its authors wrote.

Intergenerational Connections

OLLI also takes advantage of its connection to UMass Boston by creating opportunities to connect and to learn across generations. Maura Albert has been a member for more than a dozen years, and she feels energized by being part of OLLI and university life.

“Just being on the UMass Boston campus is a delight,” Maura says. “I love seeing such a diversity of students, different races, backgrounds, physical abilities. There is a wonderful energy that gives me energy.”

Nursing students from the Manning College of Nursing and Health Sciences at UMass Boston teach some classes, such as yoga and stretching. OLLI members get the perk of learning skills from future nurses while students gain teaching experience. An intergenerational book club is another popular offering, uniting OLLI members and gerontology PhD students in book discussions.

“A famous aging expert said that if older people want to age well, they should avoid a steady diet of old people; our Intergenerational Bookchat fills that bill,” says Sharon Carey, an OLLI member. “Our get-togethers feel like parties – full of laughter and good energy, even when we’ve chosen a really bad book… We are all smarter because of the books and ideas we share, but I think the biggest bonus is that we have developed wonderful, warm, lasting friendships.”

Another member, Deborah Baron, believes that connecting with other generations is the key to the fun of this book club.

“Intergenerational Book Group is my favorite thing about OLLI and why I would never leave,” Deborah says. “It’s a great place to make wonderful friendships and share unique perspectives on really interesting books. I’m a very lucky person to have joined this community.” 

“Our group has remained a constant in my life and is something I get to look forward to each month,” says Janelle Fassi, a PhD gerontology student who’s been part of the book club for four years. “I’ve created friendships with both OLLI members and my fellow PhD students that I will forever cherish.”

Putting generations together to share their experiences can create meaningful bonding opportunities. Coyle often shares with older adults that she, as a working mom with young children, can feel loneliness for peer connection and friendship just as older adults often do. “This is all a normal and important part of well-being,” Coyle says. “I also remind people that levels of disconnection ebb and flow over the life course, and nothing has to be permanent.”

An Active Pursuit of Well-Being and Connection

Some OLLI classes address well-being directly. In Robinson’s programs, OLLI members learn to meditate, to improve memory, and to use breathwork to promote calm. Robinson teaches a class for OLLI called Cognitive Upgrade, where she shares the latest research on the resiliency of the brain, as well as practical tips to build cognitive health. The course empowers members to take an active role in their brain health.

“What I really love to spread is hope,” Robinson says. “With Cognitive Upgrade, you learn to befriend your brain and nurture it, like you would a plant or something that you take care of. It’s all about awakening your potential.”

This sense of empowerment and connection is crucial to one’s health. Coyle says that social health requires diligent self-care, on par with efforts to maintain our physical health, mental health, or cognitive health. They’re all interrelated, after all.

“It requires maintenance, and sometimes that feels hard,” Coyle says. “It also includes preventative measures and treatment when you’re feeling particularly alone.”

Mental health may not be the motivating factor for most people to join OLLI, but belonging to the group may become a valuable part of one’s efforts to boost or maintain a sense of well-being. One powerful medicine for positive mental health in older adults may look a lot like friendship and fun.

“What is think is most influential about OLLI is that members are learning with each other, they’re activating their brains together,” Robinson says. “They know they’re not alone, and they learn information that empowers them… There’s an amazing feeling of togetherness and closeness.”