FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
EngAGE 
Tim Carpenter
Executive Director
(818) 255-0430 fax (818) 255-0433
tim@engagedaging.org

USC STUDY INDICATES SUPPORTIVE SERVICES
HELP LOW-INCOME SENIORS IMPROVE THEIR HEALTH

NORTH HOLLYWOOD, Calif. - A study undertaken by the Andrus School of Gerontology at the University of Southern California indicates that life-enhancing services delivered to residents of low- and moderate-income senior housing help improve seniors' health, delaying the need for higher, costlier levels of care.

The study, “Lifestyles of Low-Income Seniors Living in Independent Senior Housing,” reflects very positively on the programs provided by EngAGE , a nonprofit provider of life-enhancing services to senior residents of affordable housing in Southern California.

Supervised by doctoral candidate William Treadwell, the study states that “the two earliest sites providing EngAGE  services, as contrasted to the non-EngAGE  sites, indicated EngAGE  had more respondents reporting improved health over the past year, while more respondents at non-EngAGE  sites reported worsening health during the same period.”

The study consisted of detailed surveys of 591 seniors living at eight different housing sites, some of which offered EngAGE  services while the others did not. The study sought to measure the effectiveness of these programs on residents' health and independence by tracking whether and how EngAGE  programs are improving residents' lives, using such measurements as changes in self-reported health, health services usage and life satisfaction levels.

“The goal was to better understand the relationship between senior activities and health with respect to the impact seniors had on the medical care industry,” Treadwell said. By providing supportive services to low-income seniors, the hypothesis was that seniors' health “will be maintained longer and those with lesser health will have improved, resulting in decreased usage of health services and need to move into institutionalized, long-term care.”

The tendency is for those seniors who are more satisfied with life, more mobile, and participate in more leisure activities to have better self-reported health, the study concluded.

The EngAGE  program serves a total of more than 2,000 low- and moderate-income seniors living at communities located in Ontario, Anaheim, Duarte, Pomona, North Hollywood, Norwalk, Whittier, Azusa, Fountain Valley, Huntington Park, Long Beach and Norwalk. Programming currently includes college-level educational classes, health and wellness programs, bus service, creative arts programs, recreational activities, health education, a food bank, volunteerism, intergenerational mentoring programs, and many others.

EngAGE  also recently received an $80,000 grant from The California Wellness Foundation, showing further evidence that the program's effect on seniors is having an impact. The grant was received just a few weeks after the receipt of the USC results. Created in 1992 as an independent, private foundation, The California Wellness Foundation's mission is to improve the health of Californians by making grants for health promotion, wellness education and disease prevention programs.

Allan Kingston, President of Century Housing said, “This grant is a major coup for EngAGE , and recognizes that the work they are carrying out is important and worthwhile.”

Century Housing, one of California's largest affordable housing lenders, has helped create more than 11,000 units of quality affordable housing in the metropolitan Los Angeles area. Century granted $500,000 of loan interest on three acquisition and rehabilitation loans to fund the EngAGE  on-site program.

EngAGE  programs are designed to stimulate resident interaction and self-sufficiency, a greater sense of community ownership, and promote a philosophy of active living in place. “By providing a safe, caring environment where the emphasis is on respect and personal fulfillment, we're trying to show seniors that there really are no barriers to them continuing to live as full and busy a lifestyle as they want to. That's a real change for many low-income seniors, who often struggle on a daily basis just to survive, without the support of family and friends,” noted Tim Carpenter, Executive Director of EngAGE .

The USC study related a number of anecdotal findings, including one resident suffering from depression that was persuaded to attend a computer learning program and soon became happier and more outgoing, and another with a foot infection who had become a shut-in until the EngAGE  “Resident Relief” Program intervened. Resident Relief pays a small stipend to healthy residents to check on their more frail neighbors.

“I have been examining some of the residents at Pacific Villas for the past two months. They have started a program for healthy residents to check on their more frail neighbors. The program saved the life of Mrs. Evelyn Woods, who was found to have very low blood sugar and needed to be hospitalized immediately,” said Dee Beng Lim, M.D., Emmanuel Medical Providers, Upland.

Demographic data suggest that the potential universe of those in need of services such as those provided by EngAGE  is growing. Everyone is aware, for example, that thanks to improved health care, Americans are gradually becoming older. (According to the Census, the number of people age 85 or older is expected to double from 3 million in 1990 to 6 million by 2010, and to double again by 2040.)

“The USC study results and the support of the California Wellness Foundation really prove what we feel we have known for quite some time now,” said Carpenter. “If you give seniors the opportunity to remain actively engaged in life, help prevent illnesses that could require more costly types of care, and promote residents' ability to stay independent, they simply remain healthy longer. The cost of giving these seniors a range of programs and creating a greater sense of purpose in their lives pales in comparison to the cost of putting them in nursing homes. Every day we can put that off, we're saving their families - and the taxpayers - a lot of money and maintaining a better quality of life for them.”

For more information about EngAGE  or to make a donation, contact Tim Carpenter at 818) 563-9750, or by e-mail at tim@engagedaging.org