|
January/February 2007 Newsletter In This Issue:
HIV/AIDS is not confined to young people. In New York City, 31% of people with HIV are over age 50, and 71% are over age 40. The trend is clear and unmistakable. Thanks to antiretroviral drugs, people are living longer with AIDS. New infections are also a factor in the increasing number of older people with HIV/AIDS. If a person, no matter how old, is sexually active or takes drugs, he or she is not immune to the disease. The "graying of AIDS" requires a concerted medical and social service response. The greatest challenge we face is overcoming not just the stigma that attaches to AIDS as a disease transmitted sexually and through IV-drug use but also reluctance in the medical community and even among social workers to talk with older persons about sexual issues and unsafe practices, or to recommend AIDS testing. The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene estimates that as many as one in four HIV positive New Yorkers are unaware of their infection. This newsletter describes a pioneer effort by a senior center to educate seniors about their risks, and a February 7th conference hosted by DFTA on HIV/AIDS in the older population. I welcome signs that the aging network is beginning to take a hand in educating seniors about AIDS and the importance of testing when in doubt. I look forward to the day when centers will be havens for HIV/AIDS infected seniors, providing them with the acceptance and support they need from the senior community. Please email or write to me at any time. I look forward to hearing from you. Also, call 311 to learn about the Department's services for seniors or read more at nyc.gov/aging.
Leadership and Customer-Driven Mission Key to Meals Utilization DFTA undertook the study of declining attendance at senior centers to find out whether under-utilization could be reversed. DFTA found that it is possible to increase meals utilization even at seriously underutilized centers and despite location and facility issues. Center director leadership, creativity and adherence to mission are the critical factors, along with a consumer-driven mission. Community building and creating a home away from home for members and potential members are key. Illustrating these points through their true, funny and passionate "turn around" stories were Marlena Vaccaro of the Yorkville Luncheon Club (along with Bill Dionne, representing Yorkville's sponsor, the Burden Center), Betsy Jacobson of UJC Luncheon Club, Yolanda Mayrant of the McLeod Bethune Senior Center and Patricia McCormack of RAIN Middletown Senior Center. Study investigators also worked closely with the directors of four other programs. They found that successful center directors have the ability to think strategically, to remain focused and disciplined while taking on hard challenges, to communicate their energy and vision to staff and center members and to build a team. Their best practices and strategies are also described in the Study.
Foster Grandparents Take on New Mentoring Roles
To date, 15 volunteer senior "mentors" have completed training as "Visit Coaches" for the Agency of Children's Services (ACS), helping to facilitate family visits between children in the child welfare system and their birth families. Foster Grandparent "mentors" are also working with the Osborne Association, a Brooklyn-based prison re-entry program that offers "healthy" marriage training to couples readjusting to family life after prison release of one or both partners. While the parents are in training sessions, FGP mentors engage their children in play, conversation or reading activities. Other sites where FGP mentors are lending a hand include Big Brothers, Big Sisters, the New York Foundling Hospital, the Pathways Program serving adolescent mothers, and the Brooklyn Children's Center. Last August a New York Times article featured the Legal Aid Society's Manhattan Family Court's Reading Room, a reading "oasis" for children waiting for the Court to decide their future. The article noted the role of Louise Rogers, a "foster grandparent" who supervises the Reading Room.
Showing Someone Cares, Partner to Partner Many seniors live lonely lives, with no one to talk to or to share their problems or even to share happy news. DFTA's Partner to Partner Program at 25 senior centers and NORC programs offers an effective person-to-person alternative. The program is based on the notion that it is easier to talk to someone whose life experiences are similar to your own. It works very simply. A senior trained as a "friendly listener" strikes up a conversation with a fellow senior who appears to be isolated. Now in its seventh year, Partner to Partner is the brainchild of DFTA's Director of Health Promotion Programs Harriet Stollman. Two program consultants hired recently to train volunteers for the program and oversee its implementation are helping it grow. Center and NORC program members who volunteer for Partner to Partner "train" for eight weeks with one of the consultants. Honing their empathic skills during training, volunteer "partners" learn how to apply their own experience when reaching out to others. At one center, a woman Partner to Partner volunteer who played dominos with a large group of men noticed that one of the regulars was becoming more and more withdrawn. She approached him and began a supportive conversation, asking whether he'd had his breakfast yet and offering to join him for coffee. She learned that he was having increasing memory loss and couldn't even remember whether he had eaten. With her support, he soon began participating in breakfast and activities again. At another center, a volunteer noticed that an 85-year-old woman didn't come back to the center after her one visit. He called her, discovered her interest in poetry and told her about the center's poetry group. "Come try it," he urged, "and when you do, come and talk with me, I'm always here." The woman became a regular at the center and won recognition for her life experience and her poetry before she passed away six months later. "Sometimes it just takes one person to care about you to make you keep trying!" observed Madeline Pincus, one of the consultants, along with Dina Foster Osborne.
Older Pedestrians' Safety Subject of New Video Available to Senior Centers The title says it all: "There's More to Taking a Walk than Moving Your Feet." A new video/DVD developed for seniors by the NYC Department of Transportation shows senior pedestrians in all five boroughs demonstrating how to stay safe in a variety of traffic situations. In conjunction with DFTA, DOT offered the video and a facilitator's guide to senior center directors in early January. More than one third have already expressed interest. "Nobody wants to give up their quality of life, so you can't tell people not to walk in the City," said Ilona Lubman, DOT's executive director for safety education. "But," she added, "you can provide them with the opportunity to share their own wonderful ideas and strategies for staying safe, things like using the subway underpass to cross busy Queens Boulevard or other ingenious solutions to traffic hazards that only people familiar with an area can come up with." To develop the video, DOT staffers and consultants met with seniors at seven senior centers to learn firsthand about the variety of traffic challenges facing older New Yorkers every day. The seven centers were UJC Adult Lunch Club in Manhattan; Riverdale Y Senior Center and Morris Senior Center in the Bronx, The Bay Senior Center in Brooklyn, Hammel Senior Center and Sunnyside Senior Center in Queens and Cassidy Coles Senior Center in Staten Island. DFTA has also joined DOT in encouraging senior center members to submit artwork and slogans to DOT's annual Traffic Safety Contest. Winners get their artwork displayed in DOT's Traffic Safety Calendar. Ruth Krinsky, a member of UJC Luncheon Club, received the Third Prize Cash Award for her entry for the 2007 calendar. Her drawing of a young person offering to drive through snowy conditions for an inebriated friend illustrated December. Contest deadline for the 2008 calendar is June 29. Instructions and entry forms are included in the 2007 calendar. Contact DOT at (212) 442-7665 for copies of the calendar, video and facilitators' guide, and information about other DOT safety programs.
Point of Entry (POE) System for New York City Moves Forward The Department has begun discussion with its case management agencies about the aging network's role in New York State's comprehensive efforts to reform long term care. A key element of these efforts now under way is POE (Points of Entry). Throughout the State, designated POEs or long term care entry points will provide "one stop shopping" for older and disabled consumers and their families. Consumers seeking help or information on long term care will be able to go to one place - or point of entry - to find out everything they need to know. DFTA's case management agencies are expected to play an important role in New York City's implementation of POE. At borough meetings throughout January DFTA has been sharing its vision of the future of POE and inviting input from case management providers on how to position the network for new functions that promote consumer choice and independence.
Department Intensifies Focus on HIV/AIDS in Senior Population DFTA's first HIV/AIDS conference Wednesday, February 7 (National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day) sought to heighten awareness by senior center directors and senior volunteers that AIDS is now an issue in the senior population and to encourage HIV/AIDS educational programming at senior centers and NORC programs. 31% of those living with HIV/AIDS in New York City are now over age 50 and the percentage is expected to grow. Attended by senior center directors and staff as well as DFTA's Health Promotion volunteers and many other seniors, the Conference was a kick-off event signaling DFTA's intention to support AIDS initiatives targeted to older persons and to work in tandem with the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH), the Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC) and AIDS organizations. The Department will be working with DOHMH to distribute condoms and information to all 329 senior centers.
Program Spotlight: JSPOA FIGHTS HIV/AIDS
JSPOA began its pioneer effort with encouragement from Community Resource Exchange to develop a proposal for project funding. As the first step, CRE provided two days of sensitivity training for all JSPOA senior center staff. Staff on board, the effort then moved to the senior centers. A team of staff and seniors to plan project design was formed. After surveying what seniors knew and didn't know about HIV/AIDs, the team went into full gear. They launched a campaign to solicit older volunteers willing to present on their experiences and enlisted Elders Share the Arts to train the volunteers to be effective presenters. Outreach to local hospitals resulted in a corps of health care professionals who would participate in the sessions. Recognizing that they were charting new territory, the team also addressed the question, "Will they come?" and decided on some incentives to encourage attendance at sessions. Lastly, they identified community HIV/AIDS testing sites where seniors would be referred and tested. Result: Philanthropic funding for five sessions at JSPOA's senior centers and more than 400 persons attending. Now in its second year, the project has been extended to centers and housing projects in other communities. An older man infected with AIDS has joined the presenters, adding his story of actually living with HIV/AIDS to their stories of how AIDS affects their lives in other ways. And testing is now offered on site at the centers when sessions are held. Says Carol Hunt, JSPOA's executive director, "We hope that someday educating seniors about AIDS will be as common as educating them about elder abuse. Equally important, we hope that with education seniors will become more welcoming and accepting of people with AIDS and welcome them to their centers."
|
Although billed as a mini-conference on factors affecting utilization of meals at senior centers, the real subject of DFTA's mini-conference January 12th launching publication of its 
Volunteer "foster grandparents" in DFTA's Foster Grandparent Program (FGP) provide encouragement, guidance and support to help youngsters thrive in head-start, nursery school and elementary school classrooms. Now, these dedicated seniors are also reaching out to children in foster care and children with incarcerated parents. They are participating in a Mentoring Project funded by the Corporation for National and Community Service and illustrating how caring adult mentors can transform young people's lives.
A little more than a year ago in eastern Queens the Jamaica Services Program for Older Adults (JSPOA) launched the first HIV/AIDS education initiative geared to senior center members in New York City. Its goal: to make older adults in the community more aware of their HIV risks and empower them to be tested. Key features of the program: seniors educating seniors by describing their personal experience as elders either affected by or infected with HIV/AIDs; a presentation by a health professional; a seven minute video; a demonstration of male and female condoms; and facilitation of testing.