Creating Alliances Today for Tomorrow: A Consortium of Colleges and Universities Help Students to Rethink Aging
Colette Phipps
Description: The Westchester Alliance of Academic Institutions for Aging Related Studies and Workforce Development is working to help students learn to rethink aging. It is a 22 member consortium of colleges and universities in the county and not for profit organizations.
Its goals are to foster collaboration among educational institutions in response to the aging phenomenon; facilitate curricula that will address aging issues and promote interest in careers community/service learning and internships in aging.
The Westchester Alliance offers informational sessions to faculty on various how-to methods of integrating aging issues into a wide range of courses; places aging fact sheets, and empirical information on a website - and create several projects in which students participate for the purpose of satisfying community/service learning or internship requirements, becoming civically engaged, and/or learning to advocate for new policies to improve quality of life.
One such project PAATHWAYS, Partners in Advocacy for Aging towards health, matches Sarah Lawrence Graduate Students in Health Advocacy with seniors living in Mount Vernon, a municipality in which nearly 80% of the people are persons of color.
PAATHWAYS is designed to support health advocates in training work under supervision so that they can:
• Enhance the senior’s knowledge about health, health care access, systems, and patients’ rights.
• Empower seniors and encourage them to take a leadership role in their own health and healthcare decisions.
• Facilitate positive change in health outcomes through more informed care, thus improving the senior’s quality of life.
PAATHWAYS is a program that serves the needs of seniors enabling them to:
• Navigating the health care system
• Empowering “voice” and communicating with doctors & other caregivers.
• Making difficult treatment decisions.
• Understanding and managing disease.
• Dealing with end of life decisions.
• Understanding health related documents.
• Accessing resources.
• Being safe at home.
• Being supported in choices about where and how to age.
Contact Information:
Colette Phipps
Research Analyst
Westchester County Department of Senior Programs and Services
Mount Vernon, NY
E-mail: cap2@westchestergov.com
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