Community Health Promotion The Growing Population Of...

Community Health Promotion The rapidly growing population of elderly creates challenges for local and national government agencies as well as individuals as they deal with health care, employment, housing, social security and other issues that concern the older population. Today local communities play a vital role in improving the quality of life and promoting health of their older residents. Specifically, senior centers are becoming more popular than ever among older adult populations as they provide a single point of access for all information and services in the community and help older adults age with dignity and independence. West Town Senior Center Currently, there are sixteen senior centers in Chicago, including six regional†¦show more content†¦The center is located at 1613 W. Chicago Ave. and is open during the weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The center’s programs focus mainly on three big problems faced by seniors: malnutrition, lack of exercise and social isolation. On average, the WTSC serves daily about sixty baby boomers (50-59 years old) and seniors (60+ years old) that reside in the 1st, 26th, 27th, 32nd, and 35th wards. Population and Services According to the National Council on Aging (2015), senior centers have become one of the most widely used services among America’s older adults. Today, 11,400 senior centers nationwide serve more than 1 million older adults every day (Senior Centers: Fact Sheet, 2015). Nationwide statistics indicate that the majority (70%) of senior center participants are women; half of them live alone. The most participants are Caucasian, followed by African Americans, Hispanics, and Asians respectively. The average age of participants is 75. The majority visit their center one to three times per week and spend there on average 3.3 hours per each visit. Contrary to the nationwide data, the majority (90%) of participants at WTSC are Hispanic, followed by African Americans, Caucasians and lastly Asians. Since many of the participants do not speak English, the classes and activities are translated simultaneously to Spanish. Similarly to the nation’s