Living Well with Chronic Conditions Leader Trainings
The Wisconsin Institute for Healthy Aging is pleased to announce the Living Well with Chronic Conditions training schedule for 2012. Due to expiring grants and requests to have leader training events early in the year, we have scheduled 5 Living Well leader training events throughout the state with one in each public health region. Please note that individuals interested in the training must attend all four days, which run from approximately 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. all four days.
For those of you unfamiliar with the program, the Living Well with Chronic Conditions Program is an evidence-based prevention program. It is a community-based workshop that meets for 2-1/2 hours, once a week, for six weeks, in community settings such as senior centers, churches, libraries, and hospitals. People with different chronic health problems attend together. Workshops are facilitated by two trained leaders, one or both of whom are non-health professionals with a chronic disease themselves. Subjects covered include: techniques to deal with problems such as frustration, fatigue, pain, and isolation; appropriate exercise for maintaining and improving strength, flexibility, and endurance; appropriate use of medications; communicating effectively with family, friends, and health professionals; nutrition; and how to evaluate new treatments.
Classes are highly participative. Mutual support and success build the participants’ confidence in their ability to manage their health and maintain active and fulfilling lives. The program was developed at Stanford University and has proven to reduce ER visits and hospitalizations and improve overall health and health behaviors. Wisconsin currently has over 325 Living Well leaders and in the last few years, together we held approximately 100 workshops each year. But there are thousands of older adults in Wisconsin who could greatly benefit from this workshop, and to reach them, we need many more trained leaders.
Living Well Leaders have found preparing for and facilitating the workshops to be extremely personally rewarding. Most leaders have chronic health conditions themselves and are successfully using the strategies they have learned through the workshop. Leaders have the satisfaction of discovering the contents of the program and learning group leadership and facilitation skills that they can also use in other areas of their lives. Most importantly, they will watch people with ongoing health conditions learn to successfully manage their conditions by using the skills and tools that they have shared with them.
Space is Limited. Sign Up Now.
The five scheduled four-day Leader Trainings are set for:
Barron County – January 24, 25, 31, and February 1, 2012
Barron County ADRC, 330 E. LaSalle Avenue, Barron, WI 54812
Trainers: Leslie Fijalkiewicz and Pam VanKampen
Brown County – February 9, 10, 16, and 17, 2012
Oneida Elder Services, 2907 S. Overland, Oneida, WI 54155
Trainers: Tina Pospychala and Janell Keeter
Milwaukee County – February 16, 17, 23, and 24, 2012
Goodwill Industries, 6055 N. 91st Street, Milwaukee, WI 53225
Trainers: Jennifer Lefeber and Harvey Padek
Green County – February 16, 17, 23, and 24, 2012
Green County ADRC, N3152 State Road 81, Monroe, WI 53566
Trainers: Joyce Lubben and Jill Ballard
Trempealeau County – March 22, 23, 29, and 30, 2012
Osseo Location to be announced
Trainers: Sherri Rhoda and Jill Ballard
DEADLINE is two weeks before the first day of each Leader Training.
Below are two documents you will need:
Leader Application Form. Interested individuals must return the Leader Application to the Wisconsin Institute for Healthy Aging (WIHA). Individuals’ sponsoring organization must also sign the application. This form provides basic information about both the leader and his/her sponsoring organization, the leader’s background, and interest in becoming a Leader and their understanding of the commitments involved.
Implementation Plan is a document to help the potential leader and the leader’s local sponsoring organization identify and divide up responsibility for the various tasks involved. Leaders must have a sponsoring organization to partner with in implementing the workshop. Leaders and their sponsoring organizations should begin to complete the document and Leaders should either send it to WIHA ahead of time or bring it with them to the Leader Training. Be sure to have already selected the dates and location for your first workshop, which should be scheduled to begin within three months of the Leader Training.
Please return leader applications to:
Barbara A. Murray
Evidence-Based Prevention Programs Assistant
Wisconsin Institute for Healthy Aging
1414 MacArthur Road, Suite B
Madison, WI 53714
Phone: 608-243-5690
Fax: 866-341-1278
barbara.murray@wihealthyaging.org
Please note: Due to funding issues, these will likely be the only Living Well Leader Trainings offered this year, so please sign up today.
