Senior Centers Evolve in Changing World
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As baby boomers enter old age, senior centers are trying to meet their needs by adding new programs, such as more health and fitness. But centers also want to include other constituents, such as the homebound and even teenagers. Click here to view article.
Senior centers are changing. Not only are they trying to appeal more to baby boomers by offering more exercise and health programs, among other things; even the name “senior center” is being examined as baby boomers might find it off-putting.
Meanwhile, a pilot program in New York City is creating a virtual senior center for the homebound by using computer, video and Internet technology. Other centers are going beyond the original goals of senior centers. An innovative program at the senior center in Farmers Branch, Texas, brings together seniors and younger people. “I Teach You, You Teach Me” won the 2012 education award from the National Institute of Senior Centers (NISC), which honors senior centers throughout the nation which offer innovative, creative and replicable programs for older adults.
While the older adults in the Texas program needed help from the younger ones with technology, such as using their cell phones, computers, digital cameras and Kindles, the teens wanted to learn some of those old-fashioned pre-technology skills, such as how to cook, crochet, line dance, play cards and dominoes. To combine an old pastime with new technology, both groups competed in a Wii bowling tournament.
In the free weekly summer program, not only did everyone learn new skills, but they made new friendships too. “It was an amazing joint effort with both groups learning quite a bit about each other while learning particular skills to make their lives better. They found out that each group wasn’t as bad as they originally thought and that each had valuable information and skills that they were more than happy to share,” reported the NISC.
Another award-winning program at the Rancho and Lakeview senior centers in Irvine, Calif., accomplished several purposes at once: increasing senior access to healthy and nutritious food while spurring physical activity. The EarthBox Giveaway Program: Container Gardening for Seniors provided free gardening equipment for seniors with physical limitations, strength issues and space limitations, enabling them to produce homegrown fruits and vegetables and seasonal plants and flowers.
“In addition to providing healthy food, this program offers the benefit of increased mental, social, and physical activity through gardening, instills pride for seniors when they are able to share their crops with friends and neighbors, which provides the opportunity to develop new friendships and stronger ties within their community,“ NISC reported.
Helping Homebound Seniors
In New York City, seniors in wheelchairs or otherwise restricted in their movements can still participate in activities at their local senior centers. The Virtual Senior Center uses computer, video and Internet technology—both in the seniors’ homes and at their local senior centers—to create an interactive experience that “reduces social isolation, promotes wellness and provides better access to community services,” the program reports.
Six homebound seniors, ranging in age from 67 to 103, participated in the demonstration project, made possible by a public-private partnership between Selfhelp Community Services, Microsoft, the New York City Department for the Aging and Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications.
One participant, Milton, 89, said bluntly of the program: “It saved my life. Before this project, I was bored to death. I was just waiting for my time to finish. Now, all of a sudden, I’m wide awake. I’m alive again. . . . [The program] makes me feel less lonely. I can communicate easily with people. It also gives me a million things to talk about and things to get interested in.”
Through the use of video cameras and monitors at the senior center, homebound seniors interact with classmates and instructors to participate in various activities, including armchair yoga, painting classes, current events discussions and tai chi. Seniors at home can see and hear the other people in the class and actively participate in two-way discussions and activities.
Adele, 103, had only used her computer to communicate with her daughter in California. But with the new program, she now has a personal video blog, participates in art and calligraphy classes and in discussion groups at the Selfhelp Benjamin Rosenthal Senior Center. Adele also “attends” religious services streamed live from the New York Central Synagogue. Even though she can’t get up and move herself, she enjoys watching, through her computer, the tai chi and ballroom dancing at the center. “I can see them dancing, and I feel like dancing myself,” she says. “It’s wonderful.”
Although just a small pilot project, the results are promising. A psycho-social assessment that measured the six participating seniors’ attitudes, health attributes and emotional factors at the start of the program and at various stages showed marked improvement throughout the course of the project.
Looking Ahead to the Future
New York City appears to be at the forefront of designing senior centers to meet the needs of a rapidly evolving senior population. Not only does it have a senior center dedicated to those who are blind and visually impaired, the first in the nation, but it also opened what city officials say is nation’s first full-service senior center designed specifically for the gay community.
In a 2010 study, the city looked at what senior centers needed to do to meet the new challenges. Findings showed that senior centers need to cater to a population that includes both baby boomers and older folks, both with different needs and wants. Today, the traditional senior center participant has a limited education and is female, 70 years or older, widowed or living alone and on a fixed, low income. However, this snapshot doesn’t reflect that on one side of this demographic is a growing population of older adults between the ages of 60 and 65 (the boomer generation) and on the other side is a near doubling in the 85+ group as well.
While the “younger” older adults are thought to have limited needs for senior centers and lack interest in the current program offerings, those on the “older” end of the aging spectrum are most in need of services, due to increasing frailty. At the same time the centers continue to offer traditional recreational programs such as arts and crafts, dance, bingo, trips, parties and movies, also popular are newer activities, such as health screenings, computer and educational workshops and fitness programs such as yoga and tai chi.
The study also pointed out that the general population may have a negative image of senior centers. “’Younger seniors,’ or those from middle income backgrounds may view senior centers as being for ‘older’ seniors with disabilities or low-income consumers, making them less attractive.”
Some senior centers are considering dropping the word “senior” from their titles so as not to alienate the baby boomer generation, which doesn’t see themselves as seniors. In an NISC survey of 244 senior centers, 63 percent were in favor of changing their name because they believe the term “senior center” will not serve their communities well into the future and that baby boomers can’t relate to it. (National Council on Aging.)
“There’s a negative image or stigma associated with the current name,” said one respondent. “It suggests a stereotypical view of people sitting around in a wheelchair playing cards.”
Beyond the name, what direction do senior centers need to go?
“Less cards, more activities,” summed up one respondent. Other answers included, more educational and community events, evening and weekend hours to serve working older adults, additional fitness activities and health programs, computer tools and more academic classes.
Maybe the senior center of the future will show the movie Easy Rider alongside Casablanca, play the music of the Rolling Stones in one room and Bing Crosby in the next, serve a menu of sushi as well as macaroni and hold classes about how to take care of aging parents and how aging parents can handle their difficult baby boomer children.
A Snapshot of Senior Centers
Every day, nearly 11,000 senior centers serve one million older adults across the country, making senior centers one of the most widely used services among America’s older adults, according to the National Council on Aging Senior Centers: Fact Sheet, which provides a snapshot of participants.
A profile of participants shows that:
- Approximately 70 percent are women, and half of them live alone.
- The majority are Caucasian, followed by African Americans, Hispanics and Asians.
- Compared with their peers, senior center participants have higher levels of health, social interaction and life satisfaction, and lower levels of income.
- The average age is 75.
- Seventy-five percent visit their center 1 to 3 times per week and spend an average of 3.3 hours per visit.
To maintain operations, senior centers rely on various funding sources, including federal, state and local governments; special fundraising events; public and private grants; businesses; bequests; participant contributions; in-kind donations and volunteer hours.
Research shows that older adults who participate in senior center programs can learn to manage and delay the onset of chronic disease and experience measurable improvements in their physical, social, spiritual, emotional, mental and economic wellbeing.