News

Neighborhood House Offers Variety of Services for Immigrant Elders

For over 25 years, Neighborhood House has offered wellness programs in multiple languages to support low-income, immigrant, and refugee older adults and their caregivers in King County. They include:

• 

  Caption: Click on the image above to watch “How Neighborhood House Supports Community Well-Being” (YouTube, 02:06).

  Matter of Balance is an evidence-based program (NCOA) that helps older adults reduce the likelihood of falls. Participants meet two hours per week for eight weeks. During weekly meetings, participants set goals for increasing their activity levels/strength/balance, as well as reduce fears of leaving home so they can socialize and be active. Currently, Neighborhood House hosts Matter of Balance groups in Russian, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese. Additional groups in Somali and Cambodian will begin as soon as we can get trainers certified.

• Aging Mastery Program is an evidence-based program (NCOA) that helps older adults plan for healthy aging. The 10-month program consists of monthly support group meetings and one-on-one check-ins. Group meetings focus on building peer-to-peer relationships and cover ten topics, such as Memory, Home Safety, and Advanced Care Planning. This popular program currently operates cohorts in Amharic, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Tigrinya, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese. Additional groups in Chuukese, Kosraen, and Marshallese will begin in early 2023.
• PEARLS (Program to Encourage Active, Rewarding Lives) is an evidence-based intervention for late-life depression. The program consists of one-on-one sessions, often in the client’s home or another community setting, with the goal to decrease geriatric depression and improve quality of life and mental health by empowering the individual to make positive life changes. In addition, PEARLS leads to other positive outcomes such as decreased social isolation, increased problem-solving ability, and improved quality of life. This program is especially important for caregivers who often experience burnout or loss of sense of self through their caregiving responsibilities. Depending on the needs of the caregiver, the program can offer multiple activities, items, and support to that individual. Examples include:
  • PEARLS can help find home health support when caregivers need some time away from their care receivers.
  • PEARLS has purchased shoes for a caregiver to take walks around the neighborhood while their care receiver is resting.
  • PEARLS has purchased a pressure cooker for a care receiver who missed cooking and wanted to reduce the burden of care responsibilities on their caregiver.

PEARLS is currently available through Neighborhood House in Amharic, Russian, Spanish, and Vietnamese.

In addition, Family Caregiver Support Programs at Neighborhood House help adults with disabilities and people aged 55+ who have unpaid caregivers. Program services include coordinating respite care, assistance with benefits enrollment, offering caregiver trainings, getting durable medical equipment and supplies, and delivering meals. Neighborhood House’s FCSP is unique because all staff are bilingual/bicultural and offer critical system navigation support for clients who may not be familiar with healthcare and benefits systems in the United States.

Neighborhood House staff can serve caregivers who speak Amharic, Arabic, Cambodian/Khmer, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Tigrinya, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese.

For more information about Family Caregiver Support services offered by Neighborhood House, contact Community Resources Manager Bradley Carlos (bradleyc@nhwa.org or 206-356-9294).

---

Contributor Emy Haruo directs Community Health at Neighborhood House. She can be reached at emyh@nhwa.org or 206-422-6493.

This article originally appeared in the November 2022 Issue of AgeWise King County.