Seniors housing community to be part of university project
LOS ANGELES: A seniors housing community is now set t be a new university project.
Community & Home Assistance to Seniors is partnering with Queen’s University to launching a pilot program exploring naturally occurring retirement communities at three Housing York buildings, including one in Newmarket
An Aurora-based seniors service centre is partnering with Queen’s University to roll out a new social wellness program in three residential buildings across York Region.
Community & Home Assistance to Seniors (CHATS), based on Edward Street in Aurora, is aiming to set up a new program in three naturally occurring retirement communities (NORC), which are buildings or neighbourhoods where a sizeable percentage of the population are seniors.
CHATS is partnering with the community to set up their own version of the Oasis program – developed by a pair of seniors in Kingston in 2011. The program focuses on three areas: nutrition, physical activity, and social engagement. Since that initial program in 2011, researchers from Queen’s, including Catherine Donnelly and Vincent DePaul from the Queen’s School of Rehabilitation Therapy, have worked to establish similar programs in other communities.
“We know that one of the challenges that older adults have is losing some of their community, or perhaps if they’re moving into a new community, they have difficulty integrating and just engaging socially,” said Christina Bisanz, chief executive officer of CHATS.
Through a variety of programming and activities, Bisanz said the program aims to boost seniors’ health and “avoid hospitalization” and help participants “delay or not require a long-term care placement.” Bisanz said the partnership with Queen’s will give CHATS a solid base to work with participants, who will help co-design the programs.
“We don’t have to start necessarily from scratch, although an important part of developing any program like this is to be sure that we are engaging with the residents or tenants that live in the NORC building,” she added.
CHATS is partnering with Housing York to start the program in three Housing York buildings that have large numbers of seniors. Two are in Georgina and one is in Newmarket.
Bisanz noted that CHATS has been running programs in Housing York buildings for years, so starting a pilot program there was a “natural fit.” While the programs will be co-designed with participants, the main aim is to boost social engagement for those taking part.
“That’s the backbone of why we do this,” she said, adding the program should allow seniors to age in place.
Bisanz said the program is still in its early stages of development, but she hopes to launch the programs in the three Housing York buildings in the fall.