Tag Archives for Leon A. Mathieu Senior Center

Senior Centers, Not Just a Place to Play Bingo

Published February 1, 2013, Pawtucket Times

Today’s senior centers are not the places our parents once visited to knit or play bingo. Established in the 1980s by the U.S. Administration on Aging, the centers programming has slowly evolved to encompass activities that encourage healthy aging and wellness, says Mary Lou Moran, who oversees Pawtucket’s Leon A. Mathieu Senior Center. Established in 1980, last year over 15,000 clients took advantage of programs and social services offered, or to eat a nutritious meal, she notes.

At Rhode Island’s 47 Senior Centers, “We are now looking at the whole person, the body, mind and spirit,” notes Moran, a former Program Coordinator who now serves as Director of Senior Services. “It is very important that we encourage individuals to live independently and safely in their communities.”

At the Leon Mathieu Senior Center, health screenings, specifically taking blood pressure readings, are performed by nursing students from Rhode Island College and URI Pharmacy students, notes Moran. “Proper nutritional counseling is a very big deal, too,” she adds, noting that a nutritionist is available to provide individual counseling.

Through the Eyes of Clients

Linda Slade discovered the Leon Mathieu Senior Center after retiring from working in retail for over 38 years. Initially, attending a few exercise activities in October 2010, she was forced to stop attending, taking care of her terminally ill husband. After his passing she came back four months later “to just be with people again.”

Slade, initially had misconceptions about Pawtucket’s Senior Center. “I was a young sixty-two and not really sure what to expect,” she said, expecting to be surrounded by very old people. That first visit totally changed her mind, seeing younger people. Besides knitting, playing cards or cribbage, the Pawtucket resident participates regularly in arthritis class, stretch exercises and Tai Chi.

Before attending the Senior Center’s exercise classes, Slade’s son had given her a gym membership. “Basically I was intimated to go because of the younger people,” she says. Now Slade is more comfortable working up a sweat with her Senior Center exercise companions.

According to Slade, the City’s Senior Center offers something [activities] for everyone, her involvement even gave her an opportunity to develop new social bonds. “I had a work family that I truly adored, but now I adore my Senior Center family, too” she said. Just like the fictional bar, Cheers, Slade knows everyone’s name in all her activity groups.

“Going bonkers” and feeling a need to get out of her home propelled Nancy Connor, 79, a former Secretary to the CEO of Citizens bank, to the doors of the Leon Mathieu Senior Center. Aortic valve surgery forced the Pawtucket resident into an early retirement in her early seventies from a job she loved and found intellectually challenging.

Once the Pawtucket widow, who lives with her companion, Mave, a 60 pound Royal Standard Poodle, found the Leon Mathieu Senior Center in the Yellow Page Directory, she went to see what it was all about. She’s been going daily ever since.

The Grand Dame of the Literary Circle

Like Slade, before attending, Connor had a misconception about Senior Centers, thinking that she would see “a bunch of old people doddering along.” Now the enthusiastic participant has found out that this was not the case.

According to Connor, not as many men come into the Center. “We really do outnumber them,” she quips, noting that they “usually appear out of thin air when there is a high-low jack game.

Walking with a cane keeps Connor from exercising but she hopes to some day explore the Chinese practice of Tai Chi. However, she gets activity involved in other pursuits. Never published, she took up writing, participating in the Book and Drama Clubs, and now considers herself the “Grandma Moses” of the Senior Center’s literary circle.

Meanwhile, Connor and a few other older participants meet monthly with third year Brown Medical students to teach them the art of speaking to the “geriatric crowd,” she says. At Friday coffee hours, invited guests come into the Senior Center’s large activity room to entertain, teach or educate, she says. If a cancellation happens, she’s drafted to play piano for the crowd in the activity room.

Like in Senior Centers across the Ocean State, every day Connor can eat lunch, only paying a minimal fee. “It is wonderful stuff, from soup to nuts,” she remarks.

A Medical Model

Jill Anderson, Executive Director of Senior Services Inc., a private nonprofit corporation established in 1975, manages the Woonsocket Senior Center. Each day over 100 clients (around 500 annually) participate in exercise activities and health and wellness programs at her site. A day care program in her building handles 35 people who have limitations in their daily living.

Reflecting its medical model philosophy, the Woonsocket Senior Center’s registered nurse, who also serves as the Wellness Director, counsels people on how to change behaviors to maintain better health. Health screening, including blood pressure checks, diabetic and bone density testing are also part of a Wellness program.

About 20 retired volunteers regularly help out each day serving lunch and assisting staff, notes Anderson. “These individuals create a friendly atmosphere for the new clients, making sure they don’t sit by themselves.”

Although many of Rhode Island’s Senior Centers have an annual membership fee or charge registration fees to participate in activities, Anderson’s nonprofit does not. “We just ask people to make a voluntary weekly contribution of one dollar to fill the gap that fundraising, grants and memorials don’t cover.”

Like in many other Senior Centers, computer courses in a computer lab is offered, says Anderson. “We would like to do more with computers, maybe we can some day offer both Intermediate and Advanced computer classes, too,” she adds, because the older clients are interested in embracing new technology, like I-pads, and smart phones.

“A Benefits Councilor also is on site to identify benefits and programs our clients are entitled to receive, states Anderson, this ultimately helping to lower the cost of supplemental Medicare plans, and make other economies.

Pumping Weights

Robert Rock, Director East Providence Senior Center, on Waterman Ave., provides all the typical exercise programs that Senior Centers offer. But through a $96,000 grant received from the U.S. Administration on Aging, his Senior Center now houses the only fitness center in the Ocean State.

“The [fitness] program promotes attitude change and development of appropriate exercise skills and reduces the risks of a sedentary lifestyle. It also improves the quality of life for our senior population,” Rock says.

According to Rock, a client can gain privileges to using the fitness room for a very minimal fee of $40 for single membership, $60 for couples. Equipment includes three treadmills, two recumbent bikes, an elliptical stepper, hand weights and six dual weight machines. Other features include a matted floor, mirrored walls, water, stereo, and cable TV.

Rock notes that 90 percent of the 258 people, mostly in their 60s, are taking advantage of this fitness center room, an attachment to the Senior Center. “They come to work out and then leave,” he says, noting that the oldest, a 91-year old man comes to work out three days a week.

Rock believes that once aging baby boomers come to us for the fitness room, they will choose to come back for other programs and services offered by his Senior Center.

Walking is also an important exercise, too, says Rock. Many clients take advantage of using the Senior Center’s half mile walking track.

Finally, Rock adds that the East Providence Senior Center is also a Rhode Island state-certified site for diabetes education. Both classes and individual counseling are offered.

In conclusion…

Starting in church basements, many as small social clubs, the passage of the Older Americans Act in 1965, propelled Senior Centers into a key provider in the nation’s long term care continuum of care.

Today, 11,000 senior centers serve one million older adults every day. In Rhode Island, 47 agencies, serving 208,000 persons, are geographically spread out from Westerly to Woonsocket and from Foster to Tiverton. Some are managed by municipalities, others by nonprofit groups. While catering to serving the state’s burgeoning elderly population, some have expanded their mission to offer programs for young and middle age adults.

While the average age is age 75, many of Rhode Island’s Senior Centers are adjusting their programming and services to attract the state’s aging baby boomers by focusing on health and wellness, recreation and life long learning.

According to Rhode Island’s Division of Elderly
Affairs (DEA), over 14 percent of Rhode Island’s population is age 65 and over. By 2030, its projected to grow to over 21 percent. Rhode Island’s senior centers are a key provider to keep the aging baby boomers, healthy, independent and at home.

Yes, today’s Senior Centers are not your parent’s bingo hall, as some mistakenly believe. Why not visit your local senior center you may even be surprised with what you find. Call DEA for a complete listing of the state’s senior centers at 401/462-3000.

Herb Weiss, LRI ’12, is a freelance writer covering aging, health care and medical issues. He can be contacted at hweissri@aol.com.

Delegates Head to D.C.

Published in Senior Digest on December 2005

Forty-seven years ago, Rhode Island Congressman John Fogarty successfully pushed legislation through Congress to create a national conference on aging issues. As a result of his forethought, the fifth White House Conference on Aging (WHCoA) will be held this month.

Scheduled every 10 years this nationwide citizens’ forum focuses public attention on aging issues and consolidates all the policy recommendations originating from the WHOCoA into a report sent to the president and Congress.

According to WHCoA staff, leading up to this conference scheduled for Dec. 11-14, there have been approximately 400 local, state and national events held across the nation, involving more than 130,000 people. The events included WHCoA listening sessions, solution forums, mini-conferences and independent aging agenda events.

The theme for the 2005 WHCoA is “The Booming Dynamics of Aging: From Awareness to Action.” The them reflects the changing face of aging in America. The conference, mandated by the Older Americans Act, focuses on the interests and needs of current seniors as well as the 78 million baby boomers who will begin to turn 60 in 2006. (Rhode Island is home to more than 152,000 seniors who are 65 and older and has the sixth highest concentration of people in this age category in the nation).

Corinne Calise Russo, director of the state Department of Elderly Affairs (DEA) said her staff gathered information about the concerns of seniors by conducting listening sessions during May and June to in Newport, Cranston, Wakefield and Woonsocket.  Russo said 150 seniors attended.

There were seven members of the Rhode Island delegation attending the WHCoA. Russo was appointed to attend the upcoming conference by Gov. Donald Carcieri. She said her experience as a 1995 delegate was “very exciting” and that she is looking forward to going back to D.C>

Other delegates are: Kathleen Connell, director of AARP Rhode Island appointed by U.S. Sen. Jack Reed; Joan Crawley, director of the Leon A. Mathieu Senior Center in Pawtucket appointed by Congressman Patrick Kennedy :William Finelli, a retired teacher and librarian appointed by appointed by U.S. Sen. Lincoln Chafee; Ann Gardella, chairwoman of the state Commission on Aging appointed by Gov. Carcieri;  Angelo Rotella, chairman of the American Health Care Association and a nursing home owner, appointed by Congressman James Langevin; and Dr. Terrie Fox Wetle, associate dean for public health and policy at Brown Unversity and policy at Brown University; appointed by WHCoA officials.

According to Russo, the grassroots input gathered at the four listening sessions was hammered out into nine policy recommendations at a resolution development workshop in September. The 12-page  document was forwarded to the WHCoA policy committee charged with planning the agenda for the conference. That committee will bring 50  resolutions gathered from pre-WHCoA events to the conference floor for a vote.

“The submitted resolutions would have to impact the largest number of seniors and also translate into issues that would affect a large number of baby boomers,” Russo noted.  She believes that some of Rhode Island’s resolutions have a good chance of being selected for consideration by the delegates.

“It is probably the one opportunity in a 10-year period of time that local advocates and seniors from Rhode Island can provide input that could become national policy that could effect future generations of seniors,” the DEA director said.

Russo says that it is important to plan for future generations of people who will choose to remain at home for the rest of their lives. She noted that the No. 1 priority that came out of Rhode Island’s listening sessions was the need to provide for a continuum of care to keep older persons in the community.

Other resolutions include a call for increased access to employment opportunities for seniors, supporting caregivers, adequate funding for chronic disease management programs with an emphasis on prevention and maintaining the independence of older disabled adults by providing programs and services to allow them to successfully “age in place.”

In 1995, the number of delegates was almost double the umber that will be attending the 2005 WHCoA. But Russo has no concerns that this reduction of delegates will diminish seniors’ input and the quality of recommendations that come out of the conference. “Every state this year was concerned with the reduction of delegates,” she said, noting that what it ultimately did was provide the opportunity to gain input form older people and baby boomers via the listening sessions.

Connell does not believe that the WHCoA report will sit on a dusty shelf in federal agencies or in the offices of bureaucrats.

“Much of the future policy direction of the country will be affected by this final report. Because of this, the report carriers the weight of its congressional mandate,” she said.

State Wants its Resolution Debated in Washington

The state Department of Elderly Affairs (DEA) submitted nine resolutions to the White House Conference on Aging Policy Committee. It is hoped that the Policy Committee will recommend some of the resolutions for consideration during the conference. The resolution for national policies that:

  1. Establish standards for Medicaid coverage of both facility-based and community-based services; long-term care insurance portability; incentives for excellent care; federal support for assisted technology; an aggressive campaign to educate employers, caregivers and the public about community-based health care and social service options; state and federal coordination of services.
  2. Encourage employees through incentives to: hire and retain older workers; offer flexible work schedules; allow older workers to buy into benefits and adopt attitudes that value the older workers.
  3. Support proactive and informed retirement and long-term care planning for seniors and caregivers, including tax incentives for professionals who look after or provide services to the elderly.
  4. Establish comprehensive care programs for diverse elders, including education about prevention; accessible immunizations, screenings and treatments without regard to ability to pay; nontraditional culture-specific treatments; culturally sensitive end of life care; and an initiative to require that cultural proficiency be included in basic medical education.
  5. Encourage a proactive approach to the conversation within families regarding the preferences and responsibilities of care giving; mandate the Family Medical Leave Act for all workplaces; support caregivers through tax breaks and other financial incentives; design services that are more sensitive to the needs of caregivers.
  6. Promote flexibility and innovation in services, provide adequate same-day urgent medical transportation; support volunteer driver programs; expand community options such as delivery services and coordinated group trips to consumer destinations; and improve coordination of exiting public transportation.
  7. Address education about healthy lifestyles , which government should support along with chronic disease management. The support should include subsidized gym members and  home adaptation.
  8. Form a task force to review and revise standards of the Adults with Disabilities Act (ADA) to more closely reflect the needs of disabled adults; promote aggressive publicity and posting of ADA standards.
  9. Develop a response to housing needs for the next three decades that will include education of caregivers and baby boomers about housing options and the need for long-term financial planning; incentives for universal design to support aging in place, proximity to services; a commitment to esthetics and opportunities for social interaction.