Aging In Place

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Date: Friday, August 10, 2007
Time: 12 Noon — 2 p.m.

This session looks at an innovative research project undertaken by Community Preservation and Development Corporation (CPDC) that assesses the impact of home health monitoring technology for assisting older adults to “age in place.” The project examined the impact that technologies might have on improving the economics and health outcomes in an affordable housing community. An additional key component of the project was the development of a training curriculum for home health workers who provide services to individuals utilizing home monitoring technologies. Strategies utilized to create interest in the project, the implementation process, early outcome data, and, what worked or didn’t work, will be discussed. Attention will be given to the healthcare monitoring trends, technology use among the elderly and how this is likely to affect senior housing in the future. The additional programming developed to support seniors as they age in place and the type of partnerships needed to successfully accomplish this goal will also be examined. Partnerships that have been and/or are being created will be highlighted, as well as the components of a successful aging in place program and the CPDC approach.

Presenters:

Donna Chavers
Manager of Senior Programs/Resources
CPDC

Donna Chavers serves as the manager of senior resources at Community Preservation and Development Corporation (CPDC). In this position, Chavers is responsible for the development and implementation of senior programming for the more than 23 CPDC residences in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. Prior to joining CPDC, Chavers served as director of graduate admissions/recruitment at Temple University’s School of Social Administration. She later became an adjunct faculty member at Temple University’s Institute on Aging where she developed requisite courses for the gerontology certificate program. During her 30-year career, Chavers held positions of increasing responsibility at Philadelphia’s Stephen Smith Geriatric Center, the oldest African American nursing home in the country and the birth place of the National Center/ Caucus of the Black Aged founder Hobart C. Jackson. These positions included supervisor of social services at the Smith Sheppard Senior Center and associate director of the Senior Assistance and Referral Agency (SARA), where she managed the information and referral unit of the Philadelphia Corporation on Aging. Chavers’ professional experience also includes: 2 training medical students, graduate nursing students, and graduate social work students in geriatric care management; spearheading recruitment/outreach efforts to homebound seniors; developing health-related and minority-focused self help groups; and serving as the director of the minority management traineeship program at Lincoln University where she trained minorities to assume management roles in geriatric agency hierarchies. During her tenure at Lincoln University, Chavers also trained faculty at Historically Black Colleges to secure federal funding. Chavers earned her master’s degree (MSW) from the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Work. She has served as the executive director of COGS-Coalition of Geriatric Services, as Caregiver Educator for the Howard County Office on Aging, and as director of senior services at the Affiliated Sante Group in Montgomery County, Maryland.

Ellen Wuertz
Home Health Technology Project Director
CPDC

Ellen Wuertz has more than 25 years experience in nonprofit and government agencies as a health educator, resource development and marketing director, grants and program administrator, board member, and consultant. Her expertise also includes acute and critical care nursing. Currently, Wuertz is home health technology project director for Community Preservation and Development Corporation (CPDC). In this role, she is responsible for the development of an innovative training program for home health workers who will be working with the elderly as they “age in place” using modern-day technologies. In addition, Wuertz oversees a federally funded project that is exploring the use of home health monitoring technology to manage chronic disease in the elderly. Prior to her present position, Wuertz was executive director of the Western Colorado Area Health Education Center where she developed and implemented initiatives to address healthcare worker shortages in rural western communities and provided ongoing continuing education programs for healthcare practitioners. Wuertz is a registered nurse (RN) and holds a master’s degree in public health (MPH).