Since March
2004, senior fitness program participants at nutrition sites in the Mountain
Empire Older Citizens service area have racked up an incredible 12,000 hours of
exercise time.
Some did their exercises standing
up, others while seated in chairs, but all stretched their bodies, moved to
peppy music and worked on building their range of movement, which improves the
body and gives a lift to mental outlooks.
On July 16, that milestone was
recognized at the state level as the agency program received the Commonwealth
Council on Aging's 2006 Best Practices Award in the Healthy Aging Category.
During a press conference at the
agency, Dr. Richard Lindsay, Commonwealth Council on Aging chairman, praised
MEOC executive director Marilyn Maxwell, staffers working on the project and
program participants for establishing an evidence-based Physical Activity
Program that is being duplicated nationally and internationally.
In healthy aging, regular exercise
is a key issue, Lindsay told about 85 people gathered for the award
presentation. "If you exercise and lead a healthy lifestyle, you will live
longer and better. But there are many barriers to exercise programs for those
who live in rural areas," he noted.
To get around those
barriers, he said, MEOC chose to use its nutrition sites as centers where
participants could be effectively taught how to do low-impact fitness exercises
for the elderly, and then encouraged to keep the workouts going. MEOC partnered
with Bunny Caro-Justin, Director of theArthritis Program of The Chronic Disease Prevention Division of the Virginia
Department of Health, The Virginia Department for The Aging, Big Stone Gap Parks
and Recreation Department, and the
UMWA Health and Retirement Fund in this program.
The program's successful results
earned the agency top honors in a very competitive award selection process
conducted by the Council on Aging, he said. As it has on many other fronts, MEOC
demonstrates that "Older adults do better when they have healthy choices
they can make," he noted.
Continuing its pattern of
innovative programming, MEOC is now launching a rural PACE (Program of
All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly) component, the first rural PACE program in
the nation, he said. "It will also be looked at on a national and
international level," Lindsay predicted.
Maxwell in turn, praised Lindsay
for his work as a leader in Alzheimer's disease advocacy and research at the
University of Virginia's medical school, and his participation as chairman of
the Virginia Delegation for the White House Conference on Aging. Lindsay, she
said, has worked for many years to improve the quality of life for Virginia’s
and the nation’s senior population.
MEOC's development of the PACE
program is proceeding on schedule, she said, and she hopes to see the PACE
Center open its doors in January 2008. "Dr. Gary Williams will be joining
our staff as PACE director and physician," she said.
