Offering Hope…
Behavioral Health Services for the Kansas City Northland community. Prevention, assessment and treatment services for individuals and families throughout Clay, Platte and Ray counties
will need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader or a similar program to view and print this document.Tri-County Mental Health Older Adult Care Coordinator Sally King shared a recent collection of suggestions that are especially useful for area churches seeking to become more “older adult friendly.”
“Some of these are outstanding ideas for any organization but they are especially relevant to a church,” King explained. “Ideas such as creating a caregiver support group, a friendly visitor program, a lawn mowing ministry, or sponsor an on-site senior wellness fair are just some of the ideas that would work really well for a church who wants to be more older-adult friendly.”
Part of King’s efforts to ensure services is due to the growing number of older adults in the Northland. The list of suggestions is available on the Tri-County Web site, www.tri-countymhs.org. Other ideas such as providing large print hymnbooks or providing in-home meals for seniors who might be struggling with a physical or even an emotional disability —are especially relevant to churches. Even simply offering to petsit a senior’s pet while they are in the hospital is a god-send and can work for nearly any type of organization that reaches out to older adults.
“We’ve made a lot of progress in making the Northland more age-friendly, but we know that older adults continue to face a lot of barriers to staying vital in the community and their church. Our goal as aging professionals is to help them age in place and continue to socialize in their church, which we know is often the place they get solace and socialization, which is incredibly important in preventing depression, as well as preventing falls and even premature nursing home placement” King explained. “Churches and other organizations can do a great deal to help that and we hope these ideas give them more opportunities.”
Created in 2005, the Tri-County Older Adult Care program has been instrumental in the formation of a new Aging and Mental Health Coalition for Kansas City North and a steady increase of older adult friendly mental wellness services and special meetings. The services are among the reasons Northland regions have been recognized statewide for their services to seniors.
For more information on Tri-County’s Older Adult programs, contact Sally King at (816) 877-0453 or email sallyk@tri-countymhs.orgTri-County Mental Health Services, 3100 NE 83rd St., Suite 1001, Kansas City, MO 64119-9998
Telephone: (816) 468-0400 Fax: (816) 468-6635 • 24-Hour Emergency Service Crisis Line 1-888-279-8188
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