To improve your wellness center.

The money has been spent on equipment and the staff is there to attend to residents' needs, but residents just don't seem interested in your wellness and fitness program.

Jim Concotelli, vice president of programs and services at Horizon Bay Senior Communities, in Tampa, Fla., offered a few tips for making your wellness center and wellness programs more accessible and more beneficial.

1 Keep programs up to date. Conduct an activity interest survey and ask the residents for input. "Form an activity committee," he said, "so you can enlist residents to sit in on a monthly meeting to plan and provide ideas for activities."

2 Take a "whole person" wellness approach. Wellness isn't just about exercise and bingo, Concotelli said. "Whole person takes a physical, emotional, intellectual, vocational, social and spiritual approach," he said. This approach is still somewhat unique, he added, but its appeal is growing in communities.

3 Recruit volunteers. Contact local churches, schools, scout troops and get them involved in the wellness program. It's also important to have a plan for how they will help the program.

4 Offer incentives for exercise programs. An emotional incentive, such as Horizon's "Fitness Bucks" helps residents progress toward their goals. Seniors get their cards punched for achieving steps toward their goal. "When you have 30 punches (in the card), go to the corner store and get a free gift or a discount," he said. "It's nothing big, but it's something free if you participate."

5 Celebrate your successes. Post photographs of successful parties and activities, just as you would in your own home. "You take pictures of vacations and birthdays," he said. "Have pictures around the community ... for people to get attention and other people to look at them and say that looked like fun."

Bonus idea:

Administer simple fitness tests. OK, this one can't be completely implemented in one day, but it can begin today: Set goals, develop individual programs, then retest periodically. "What we find is that when you do the test everybody gets fired up," Concotelli said. Tests could include sitting up and stretching legs out, timing how long it takes to walk to a cone eight feet away and sit down again, or curling a one-pound weight.