Overview
WELL-Balanced is a community intervention program for Native elders. It is designed to improve movement, encourage exercise, and help elders reduce their risk of falling. The 16 session (8 week) course is led by volunteer coaches and includes a home safety check, fall risk screening, and a home program for use after the course is completed.
Wise Elders Living Longer was developed by the National Resource Center on Native American Aging (NRCNAA) in conjunction with the University of North Dakota Wellness Center. Focus areas were derived from Identifying our Needs: A Survey of Elders, which is made available every 3 years by the NRCNAA. The survey looks at health status, chronic disease, functional limitation, access to healthcare, health risk factors, home and community based services, housing and social interaction of American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaaiian elders. Thus far over 300 Native tribes, homelands, villages and consortia have participated.
WELL-Balanced educational materials are based on experimental evidence for fall prevention and cognitive behavioral approaches to motivation and adherence to exercise programs. It includes evidenced based education, health promotion activities, and group movement (with adaptation for individuals with diabetes, arthritis, and hypertension).
Strategies that have been shown to be effective in appropriate controlled trials or using other valid experimental approaches among community-dwelling elders (those living in their own homes) include:
The Key Objectives
Improve Movement
Encourage Exercise
Build Confidence
HAVE FUN
Pilot Site Requirements
2 volunteers for each location (you can have more, but 2 are required)
Elders
Space for 10 to 12 elders to move around
Completed application
NRCNAA Will Provide
Training for volunteer instructors (including transportation and hotel if necessary)
Publicity (sample press release, pamphlets, and posters)
All necessary supplies (handouts, name tags, stability balls, resistance bands, etc)
Assistance throughout the project (problem solving and guidance)
Since this is a pilot program we will be asking for student and instructor feedback about the sessions. We want to know what you think works and hear your suggestions on changes to make the program better. Once the pilot programs are completed we will make revisions based on your evaluations. When the program is completely updated it will be available to anyone who wants to use it. We hope to have not only a written manual but DVDs and an online version to choose from.
We do not have a set schedule for our instructor training sessions yet. Some will be here at the University of North Dakota Wellness Center and some will be scheduled at individual sites. As soon as we have pilot sites set we will begin scheduling the training.
Acknowledgments
Laurie Betting, PT, DPT of the University of North Dakota developed the curriculum with help from: Tasha Spawn, Ann Miller, Kim Ruliffson, BA, Laura Vein, BFA, Leigh Jeanotte, PhD (Turtle Mountain Chippewa), Nancy Martin, MSW (Turtle Mountain Chippewa), Leander McDonald, PhD (Dakota-Arikara), Twyla Baker-Demaray, MS (Mandan-Hidatsa), Wanda Weber, BA, Marcia Mikulak, PhD, Bev Johnson, PT, DSC, GCS, Tara Mertz, and feedback from Native elders and service providers from the National Indian Council on Aging conference, 2008.
The NRCNAA is searching for funding to pilot this project for Native elders in six geographic areas across the United States.
If you are a funder visiting this site or a Native entity with money to spend for this project, please contact Twyla Baker-Demaray at: 1-800-896-7628 or e-mail at: tbakerdemaray@medicine.nodak.edu
