Advocacy Programs

Relevant to the Care

of Older Persons
Prepared by:
Ma. Nerissa L. Villacorta
 Expected Outcomes

At the end of the unit, learners would be able to:

• Discuss advocacy relevant to elderly.
• Describe several model health promotion programs.
Advocacy Programs Relevant to
the Care of Older Persons
Role of Advocate in Health

Support a Ensure Best

vulnerable
or
that their interests
disadvanta rights are are being
ged person being taken
upheld care of
Advocacy Programs Relevant to
the Care of Older Persons

HEALTH ADVOCACY - activities related

to ensuring access to care, navigating
the system, mobilizing resources,
addressing health inequities,
influencing health policy and creating
system change
 Advocacy Services

• interacting with the aged care system

• transitioning between aged care services
• knowing and understanding their rights
• making decisions about the care they receive
• options for having their aged care needs better met
 Advocacy Services
• resolving concerns or complaints with the aged care provider
about the services they receive
• speaking with their service provider at their direction
• Increasing their skills and knowledge to advocate for them
self.
Who can access advocacy services?
• live in an aged care home
• receive aged care services in their
own home
• receive transition care
• Are helping someone who is
receiving aged care services.
 Legal advocacy
• Older adults
are disproportionately
likely to have complex
medical needs.
• incorporate legal advocacy
in their design.
• funding mechanisms for
health care and social
services—especially civil
legal services
 HEALTHY PEOPLE INITIATIVES

• Healthy People 2020/ Healthy People 2030

• Advancing Public Health Through Law and Policy
– Smoke free air law
– Mandatory seatbelt law
• Law and Health Policy Resources
Model Health Promotion
Programs for Older Adults
 HEALTHWISE
• The best-known older adult medical
SELF-CARE PROGRAM is Healthwise.
• It provides information and prevention
tips on 190 common health problems.
• Healthwise Handbook includes
physician-approved guidelines on when
to call a health professional for each of
the health problems.
Model Health Promotion
Programs for Older Adults
 CHRONIC DISEASE MANAGEMENT
• Kate Lorig, a nurse-researcher at the Standford
University School of Medicine, and her medical
colleagues have been evaluating community-based,
peer-led,chronic disease self-management
programs.
• Each program involves about a 12 participants, led
by peer leaders.
• Focus on exercise, symptom management, nutrition,
fatigue and sleep management, use of medications,
managing emotions, community resources,
communicating with health professionals, problem
solving, and decision making.
Model Health Promotion
Programs for Older Adults
 PROJECT ENHANCE
• 3. Project Enhance
• Senior Wellness Project
• Included health and functional assessments;
individual and group counseling; exercise programs;
a personal health action plan with the support of a
nurse, social worker, and volunteer health mentor;
and support groups.
• A study of chronically ill seniors reported a
reduction in a number of hospital stays and average
length of stay, a reduction in psychotropic
medications, and better functioning in activities of
daily living.
Model Health Promotion
Programs for Older Adults
 ORNISH PROGRAM FOR REVERSING HEART
DISEASE
• Dr. Dean Ornish, a physician at the University of
California at San Francisco has developed a program
for reversing heart disease
• Dr. Ornish (1992) has recommended a vegetarian
diet with fat intake of 10% or less of total calories,
moderate aerobic exercise at least three times a
week, yoga and meditation an hour a day, group
support sessions, and smoking cessation.
• Result of their program, blockages in arteries have
decreased in size, and blood flow has improved in as
many as 82% of their heart patients.
Model Health Promotion
Programs for Older Adults
 BENSON’S MIND / BODY MEDICAL INSTITUTE
• Dr. Herbert Benson at Harvard Medical School
• For individuals feeling the negative effects of
stress, Benson’s program teaches them to elicit
the relaxation response, a western version of
meditation.
• Treat patients with a combination response
techniques, proper nutrition and exercise, and
the reframing of negative thinking patterns.
Model Health Promotion
Programs for Older Adults
 STRONG FOR LIFE
• Home-based exercise program for
disabled and nondisabled older adults.
• Focuses on strength and balance, and
provides an exercise video, a trainer’s
manual, and a user’s guide.
• The exercise program led to high rate of
exercise adherence among older
participants.