Council on Aging Board

Minutes of Healthy Aging Subcommittee Meeting, 1/28/20 Attendance: (board) Mary Donnelly, Beverly Gonsalves, Andrew Hostetler, Eric Lamarche, John Lawlor, Amy Pessia, (staff) Lil Hartman, Amy Leal, Glady Rosa Council on Aging Mission Statement(s) From Lowell’s Annual Report Enhancing the lives of the older adult population and enriching the community at large. The Lowell Council on Aging is deeply committed to providing programs that reflect the diversity of our senior population. The COA works to promote and maintain the health and independence of seniors by advocating with them in many areas, arranging services, and providing meaningful social and recreational options to enhance their lives. The Lowell Council on Aging (LCOA) is a senior center that offers programming in the areas of nutrition, health/fitness, outreach, education, socialization, transportation and more. By offering these services within the City, seniors are able to meet many of their daily needs. The Senior Center is a multi-purpose center that plays a major role in Healthy Aging, and assisting seniors with aging in place and remaining independent in their community. With the help of over one hundred volunteers and a hard working staff we are able to meet a multitude of these needs and assist the senior community with accessing these very important supportive services. Brainstorming our mission/goals  Empowering  Socialization  Arranging services  Health  Outreach  Recreation  Wellness  Engaging  Enrichment  Diversity  Nutrition  Support groups  Advocacy  Independence  Education  Transportation Notes on defining mission: Adults age 60+ is better than “senior” Mission language needs to be simple reading level / translatable Linking our efforts to these goals (example: independence) Activities to promote the skills, health and home situation required for independence include:  Financial benefit services – money, reducing property tax burden, free tax preparation  Transportation – defensive driving class, rides to lunch  Access to computers at the senior center – information and communication   Health education, services such as blood pressure, Bone Builders, meditation, matter of balance fall prevention  Nutrition services to save money, remain at home after no longer cooking, balance nutrients  Life skills management – Buried in Treasures de-cluttering, scam prevention, how to budget and pay bills after loss of spouse, anxiety support, meditation/mindfulness  Transitions – preparing for interdependence, such as “how do you know when?” series  Home evaluation/adaptations such as PERS, TTY, camera systems for concerns about safety Outcomes we are seeking through our efforts – what to evaluate? (per 1000 seniors)  Number of seniors who are food-insecure in Lowell  # of 911 calls for falls in our community  Self-rated comfort using technology  # accidental fires (age 60+)  # motor vehicle crashes with operators over 60  Uptake of financial benefits such as SNAP, circuit breaker tax credit Notes for defining outcome measures:  Ask assisted living what assessment tools they use to gauge level of independence  How do we ask seniors to measure out success with self-report ratings? Tasks for Next Meeting 1. Homework: seek out local organizations, Think about how people gauge independence/criteria to create a tool 2. Narrow, group mission/goal list and match with MySeniorCenter categories 3. Organize a revised mission statement 4. Map goals, activities into a model 5. Project to consider: create a word cloud from seniors’ descriptions of what they get out of the senior center.