CSL

CANADIAN CENTRE FOR ACTIVITY AND AGING
http://www.uwo.ca/actage/

Mission: To develop, encourage and promote and active, healthy lifestyle for Canadian adults that will enhance the dignity of the aging process.

Background:

• Promotes physical activity and well-being of older adults 
• Tools: basic research, educational resources and community-based programs
• Over 450 London seniors participate in classes each week
• Focus on cardiovascular, strength, balance and flexibility training

  

  DAY 1 – February 4^th, 2013

  On our first day visiting CCAA we met with Clara Fitzgerald who is the program director. While we were waiting for our meeting we had the opportunity to watch a fitness class that was taking place in the gymnasium. I was very impressed with the work that these elders were doing. It seemed to me that the program was well implemented and that the participants enjoyed engaging in the activity.

  The Meeting – Key Points
  – Set time for our placement: Mondays 2-4pm  (Group Reflection 4-5pm)
  – Decided that we would chose one initiative to roll out in five countries (1 country per group member)
  – Chose the Home Support Exercise Program (HSEP) as our initiative to work with
  – Noted that this opportunity is “real life” as oppose to hypothetical situations we have been faced with in the past

  HSEP is an evidenced-based program for homebound individuals to aid in maintaining mobility and to reduce falls. We chose the HSEP because it already has many partners with home care agencies all across Canada. The package created for the program has already been translated into 32 languages. This allows us to eliminate any language barriers we may encounter. The program has already been successfully established in India, China and Italy.

  What we will be doing:
  – Identify global partners
  – Obtain the partner’s interest in the program
  – Created a sustainable partnership
  – Initiate the implementation of the program

  How to get there:
  – Each group member will select one region of a country
  – Common documents will be provided for us to send to potential partners
  – Once we have obtained an interest we must identify potential costs and looking into possible grants
  – If we have successfully created a cost-effective opportunity for the CCAA as well as the partner we can the move on to the implementation stage

  DAY 2 – February 11^th, 2013

  On our second meeting at the CCAA the director Clara was unable to attend so we spent this day collaborating our ideas and conducting research to begin our project. My group and I read over the development and outcome papers on the HSEP. This provided us with in-depth detail on the program so that when we will be communicating with potential partners we will possess the proper knowledge regarding the project.

  With some points from these papers and supervision from Clara we will be establishing a uniform email for each group member to forward to their selected regions during the next meeting.

  My Region:
  I chose Auckland, New Zealand as my targeted region to implement the HSEP. I researched Aging centres in this area and found one in particular that has interested me the most, Age Concern. I chose this organization because it is well developed and provides a variety of services to the aging within the community. Under their list of services (http://www.ageconcern.org.nz/council/auckland) they include visiting services for older people in their homes, and in-home support services to aid in small jobs around the house. I believe that the HSEP program would greatly benefit this organization and enriching the services that they provide.

  Next Step:
  Research more potential organizations in the same region to further contact. During our next meeting (Monday, Feb 25th) we will have a final draft of the e-mail to be sent out to our organizations in hopes with a response that they are interested in working together.

  DAY 3 – February 18th, 2013
  Reading Week – No placement

  DAY 4 – February 25th, 2013
  

  Meeting
  – During our meeting with Clara we discussed our selected countries with supporting reasons as to why we chose our regions
  – We spoke about methods of contact:
  1. Email
  2. Telephone
  3. Fax
  4. Mail
  – She provided us with strategies to generate the interest of potential partners
  – When contacting other homecare service providers it’s important to describe the CCAA and who they are

  Group Work
  – We drafted an email template as well as a letter to be sent to potential partners
  – In our e-mail we included a description of the CCAA, HSEP, and specific reasons why their agency could benefit from our organization

  Next Week
  – For March 4^th we will have our email draft completed
  – Each group member will have 3-4 agencies that we will be contacting, along with the person who we will be contact at the agencies and why them

  DAY 5 – March 4th, 2013
  

  Meeting
  – In our brief meeting with Clara she reviewed our email and she provided us with some key things to add;
  – Attach supporting journal articles to better credit our evidenced based
  program
  – Include a competition aspect to gain their attention and awareness that we
  are also contacting other potential partners in the same area
  – Emphasize that we are a part of University of Western Ontario
  – With our email completed and contacts identified we are ready to begin contacting our agencies
  – Clara stated that mailing letters can go a long way and can do much more than a simple email
  – The CCAA will be providing us with letter heads and the tools needed to mail out letters as well as access to phone to make the long distance phone calls
  

  Group Work
  – We worked in the computer lab and updated our email to send them out to our agencies
  

  Next Week
  – We will be provided with the letterheads to mail out our letters and continue to contact our agencies either via email or phone calls
  – In addition, we will beginning to work on out report and final presentation

  DAY 6 – March 11th, 2013
  Clara was not present for our meeting and we did not have access to computers, phones, or letter heads. We focused on our final presentation and report.

  DAY 7 – March 18th, 2013

  Meeting
  – During our meeting with Clara we discussed what we had accomplished the previous week
  – We presented to her the emails and organizations we had contacted and discussed further that we would send out follow up emails to our initial contact
  – TJ received a response back from Ireland and we discussed that we would combine our efforts and create a proposal to reply back with
  – Clara is going to provide us with a previous proposal for the HSEP for us to use as a template
  – She also gave us letter heads and envelopes to mail letters to our agencies

  Group Work
  – We discussed that we would continue to send out emails this week as follow ups
  – Brainstormed some key ideas and information to be included in a proposal
  – Filmed our videos that would be included in our presentation

  Next Week
  – Continue to work on proposal with the example template from Clara
  – Finalize and practice our presentation

  DAY 8 – March 25th, 2013
  Clara was not present for our meeting and we did not have access to the template proposal, computers or printers for the letters. We continued to work on our presentation and report.

  DAY 9 – April 1st, 2013
  The CCAA was closed for Easter.