Wellness Grant Provides Health Programming at WHV Apartments

February 7, 2006

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Heritage Tower and Bexley Heritage Apartments, the HUD-subsidized independent living apartments of the Wexner Heritage Village family of services, now offer an expanded wellness program thanks to a grant from the Columbus Medical Association Foundation (CMAF).

The $5,000 grant allows for health education sessions to help improve the older adults’ knowledge of important topics such as nutrition, exercise and common ailments afflicting seniors. In addition, it creates tools for residents to track their own healthcare and for staff to track interactions with residents in order to spot health issue trends in the community.

“The overarching goal of the program is to allow seniors in low-income housing better access to health information, and better links to care. Many of the residents in the two buildings speak little to no English, so all presentation materials will be created in both English and Russian,” said Robin Stock, assistant vice - president organizational advancement.

The grant is in accordance with CMAF’s mission to foster partnerships between physicians and the community to improve health issues. It aims at helping the older adults to stay independent for as long as possible, avoiding costly moves to more institutional settings whenever possible.

If the innovative program is successful, the Wexner Heritage Village hopes to help other senior service organizations to replicate it.

For more information, contact Stock at 614-559-0314.