|
The Wellness Initiative for Senior Education (WISE) Program is a wellness and prevention program for older adults, designed to help them celebrate healthy aging, make healthy lifestyle choices and avoid substance abuse. It provides valuable educational services to older adults on topics including nutrition and exercise, medication use, stress management, depression and substance abuse.
Created by the New Jersey Prevention Network (NJPN) and implemented locally by member agencies such as NCADD, WISE promotes health through education concerning high-risk behaviors in older adults.
CURRICULUM
The six-lesson curriculum is facilitated by trained prevention specialists once per week over a six-week period. Each lesson is two to three hours in length and includes breakfast or lunch. The content is organized to promote the understanding and value of generational diversity in a format that excites and energizes participants to share what they have learned with family, friends, and peers. During the lessons, participants are educated without the use of didactic teaching, but rather through interactive exercises that include small group discussion and projects, as this method of learning has been shown to be more effective with adult learners. They are also given tools and resources to take home, increasing the likelihood that what they have learned will be put into practice and shared. Each lesson has demonstrated clear outcomes.
Lesson One: Understanding the Changes Associated with Aging
- Better understanding of the biological theories that explain why we age
- Enhanced knowledge of what places individuals at risk for premature death and how to avoid these risks
- Heightened awareness of the risk of depression among seniors
Lesson Two: Aging Sensitivity
- Better understanding of the facts and myths of aging
- Greater insight into feelings about aging
- Heightened awareness of the advantages of growing older
Lesson Three: Valuing Cultural and Generational Diversity
- Expanded understanding of the concepts of culture and diversity
- Improved ability to name cultural identifications, how they impact values and interaction with others
- Better understanding of the diversity of senior citizens and the unique needs of different types of seniors
- Heightened awareness of the assumptions people commonly make about various cultural groups and how they affect interaction
Lesson Four: Medication and the Older Adult
- Increased awareness of the prevalence of medication use among older adults
- Ability to identify the behaviors that lead to medication misuse
- Expanded knowledge of how to manage medication use
- Greater familiarity with drugs commonly used by older adults, typical adverse reactions to drugs, and age-related changes in metabolization
- Improved ability to relate critical information to health care providers and medication use
Lesson Five: Addiction, ATOD (Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs) and the Older Adult
- Increased understanding of addiction as a disease
- Improved ability to identify the signs of alcohol abuse among seniors
- Expanded knowledge of the effects of ATOD use and abuse
- Greater familiarity with the health risks and treatment options for addiction
- Improved ability to identify factors that place older adults at risk for ATOD abuse and protective factors that can help prevent it
Lesson Six: An Enhanced Quality of Life
- Greater familiarity with strategies for maintaining a healthy lifestyle
- Increased awareness of our personal “stress triggers”
- Heightened awareness of our personal values and how they influence the way we think and act
For more information and to have WISE presented at your facility, please call NCADD today at 732-254-334 or write to us at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
.
|
