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Thirty (30) seniors in Inglewood who have extremely high nutritional risk scores, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, dehydration, and a variety of chronic illnesses are showing great improvement as a result of their participation in the “Be Well” nutrition and exercise program, offered by the Inglewood Senior Center, 330 Centinela Avenue, Inglewood, CA 90302. They are meeting twice a week for four months, and will continue weekly maintenance classes for an additional six months. This second “Be Well” class that has been offered at the Senior Center is funded by the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Administration on Aging as a national model of health and wellness.
Nine (9) graduates of the first class are serving as mentors to the new group. The first hour of the program is for exercise and the second hour is for intensive nutrition education. Physicians, pharmacists, social workers, nutritionists, psychologists, gerontologists and nurses are all available for group and individual consultation. The graduation from the intensive phase of the program will take place on March 3, 2005, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Senior Center. Health professionals, families and friends will be present to applaud the participants on their accomplishments.
As part of the HHS grant, three staff involved in the project will attend a mandatory meeting of all grantees in Philadelphia, PA on March 8, 2005 to share the progress of their projects and make a presentation to a delegation from across the country at the National Conference of the American Society on Aging, which is meeting in Philadelphia at the same time. Sikizi Allen, Senior Center Supervisor, Linda Peterson, “Be Well” program coordinator and Bonita Hart, Director of Food and Nutrition Management Services, Inc., which developed the “Be Well” model, will represent Inglewood.
A Task Force has been established to pursue other funding sources to continue and expand this program. Representatives from Kaiser Permanente are on the Task Force to consider possible collaboration in offering “Be Well” to its members.
This project was supported, in part, under grant CFDA #AoA 93.048 from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration on Aging. Grantees undertaking projects under government sponsorship are encouraged to express freely their findings and conclusions. These contents, however, do not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.
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