Highlands Community Ministries Receives Senior Center Award

Congratulations to HCM Senior Center, which was recently recognized for "Senior Center of the Year, 50 and Over Attendance"!

Highlands Community Ministries Senior Services Senior Center provides a home away from home atmosphere. Clients are welcomed by a friendly staff and are given the opportunity to spend the afternoon enjoying fellowship, fun and educational activities, and good food (provided through Louisville Metro Senior Nutrition). As of July 2010, HCM Senior Services will be changing its name to HCM Senior Services Shaffer Enrichment Center to honor the former Director, Ms. Roz Shaffer, who began the Senior Center in July 2001.

The HCM Shaffer Enrichment Center is creative and innovative in providing a variety of activities as well as services to participants. It is client-centered in its focus and seeks to serve the specific needs of each individual client. Some services include:

• Information and Referral addresses clients' problems and links them to services. Follow-up is provided, as needed.
  
  
• Outreach is provided through telephone contact and activities, such as open houses and health fairs. The Center targets individuals who are over the age of 60 and live in the 40204 and 40205 zip codes and beyond those boundaries. Three social workers conduct Friendly Visiting to homebound clients and those who are socially isolated, approximately six visits per week.
  
  
• The HCM Shaffer Enrichment Center offers an array of health services under Health Promotion: health screenings such as vision, hearing, balance and posture, cholesterol, blood sugar, depression, and proper usage and necessity of assisted devices. A flu shot clinic is conducted annually. A podiatry clinic is held every other month.
  
  
• The Visiting Nurse Association (VNA) provides services such as blood pressure checks, medication preparation, pacemaker checks, testing, and injections through their Health Clinic, conducted twice each month.
  
  
• Other Health Promotion activities are exercise classes offered three times per week and tai chi twice each week, "Wrap and Rap" (a group that meets once a week to wrap silverware and talk), word games, and crossword puzzles. 
  
  
• Education programs are offered once a month on relevant topics such as arthritis, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, nutrition ("Cooking for One" and Gardening Club), recognizing signs of depression, elder neglect and abuse, infectious disease control (including H1N1) and emergency preparedness.
  
  
• Also offered are recreation activities such as arts and crafts, outings, movies, a sewing group, ice cream socials (through a partnership with Graeter's), birthday celebrations and an array of musical entertainment.
  
  
• Limited transportation is provided by HCM volunteers to those seniors living in the 40204 and 40205 neighborhoods approximately five to six times per month. Transportation is provided for doctors' appointments, shopping (to Krogers, Walmart and Value Mart), and outings to restaurants.

The HCM Shaffer Enrichment Center is a place where friends can gather in a cozy, fun, and educational environment. It is a place where friends meet and become family.