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Aging : Community Programs

Food and Friends Program:

The Food and Friends Program is an innovative Southern Oregon project that provides training for senior meal program volunteers in health promotion and disease prevention. The program provides staff and volunteers with informational tools to perform simple interventions to support recipients of home-delivered meals so they may live independently. Volunteer training includes workshops on:

• Communicating Effectively with Aging Persons
• Relating to Persons with Sensory Impairment
• Understanding Age-Related Memory Loss
• Recognizing Medication Problems
• Recognizing and Responding to Depression
• Understanding Food borne Illness
• Addressing Home Safety
• Knowing and Using Community Resources

Following the training, volunteers shared changes they saw in their interactions with seniors. "For some people I work with, I may be the only person they see that week. The depression class helped me help them." Another offered, "I helped organize one person's medication and now she's doing fine. Before she was getting dizzy." And another volunteer said, "One of my food recipients is deaf and now I'm more aware of what to do." The Program is being expanded to several locations for senior peer counselors who do home visits for mental health clients. According to Don Bruland, Director of Senior and Disability Services for Rogue Valley Council of Governments, "This is a program that really can make a difference for our home-bound clients. It's an example of a new service model." The project was funded by The Northwest Health Foundation, and was brought to fruition by Sharon Johnson, OSU Extension Family and Community Development. Other contributors to the project include Senior and Disability Services in Jackson and Josephine Counties, OSU College of Pharmacy, OHSU School of Nursing, and community health and nutrition professionals.

Driving Decisions in Later Life:

A two-hour workshop on Driving Decisions in Later Life is offered upon request by Extension educators. The objectives of the workshop include:

• Describe age-related changes that affect driving
• Recognize the signs of unsafe driving
• Outline strategies for interacting with the older driver
• Preserve independence and pride of the driver
• Promote public safety

For more information about this topic, view the newsletter article: Older Drivers--Deciding When to Give up the Car Keys
by Sally Bowman, Ph.D. Extension family development specialist and Vicki L. Schmall, Ph.D. Extension gerontology specialist emeritus, OSU, http://www.oregongero.org/resource_mtrls/older_drivers.htm

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Content Contact: Sally Bowman