Senior Health Independence Project (SHIP) is a program designed to promote, maintain, and maximize health, functional ability, and quality of life among senior citizens in an urban, Northeastern U.S. community. The advisory board consists of an interdisciplinary team of senior citizen center administrators, senior high rise apartment building service coordinators, a family medicine physician, community health nurses, nurse practitioners, and nursing faculty whose primary function is to plan, develop, and evaluate program activities. Consistent with the objectives of Healthy People 2010 for adults over age 65, this collaborative endeavor has been successful in coordinating services, developing educational programs, and monitoring outcomes. The 545 adult participants involved, range in age from 62 to 89 years and reside in one of three low-income senior center high-rise apartments. Each building consists of a service coordinator (social worker) responsible for case managing the financial, emotional, physical, social, and health care needs of the seniors. Projects implemented by the team of nursing faculty, RN to BSN students, nurse practitioners, and service coordinators will be presented. These projects include health fairs, group health education programs, safety awareness sessions, immunizations, brown bag medication reviews, and individual follow-up home visits. Quantitative evaluation data will include demographics, follow-up outcomes, number of referrals and resultant outcomes, pre and post-test results, and participant satisfaction. In addition, selected case studies will be presented that reflect dramatic outcomes supporting these collaborative efforts.
Learning Objectives: By the end of the session, participants will be able to: 1. discuss an innovative senior center health collaborative project 2. develop a proposal to initiate a collaborative health promotion project 3. relate three outcome measures to evaluate similar projects
Keywords: Community Collaboration, Aging
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.