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Press release
ICAA names recipients of its 2005 Industry Innovators Awards
Cutting-edge offerings help older adults get the most out of life
VANCOUVER, BC-The International Council on Active Aging (ICAA), the world's largest trade association for the senior fitness and wellness industry, announces the winners of the 2005 ICAA Industry Innovators Awards. This year's awards competition honors 5 cutting-edge programs that target different areas of active aging. And, for the first time, the ICAA has named an Industry Equipment Innovator, an additional awards category that recognizes North America's most innovative new piece of fitness equipment for active older adults.
The recipients of the third annual ICAA Industry Innovators Awards were selected for the creativity and excellence demonstrated in their offerings to support the health and well-being of older adults. The featured programs and product garnered recognition for their cutting-edge marketing, programming, operations, design, or other individual element.
The ICAA panel considered a wide range of entries before choosing the award-winners, a group that reflects the concept of active aging in its broadest sense. According to the World Health Organization's Active Ageing: A Policy Framework (2002), active aging "allows people to realize their potential for physical, social, and mental well being throughout the life course and to participate in society according to their needs, desires and capacities, while providing them with adequate protection, security and care when they require assistance." Furthermore, "[t]he word 'active' refers to continuing participation in social, economic, cultural, spiritual and civic affairs, not just the ability to be physically active or to participate in the labour force."
"The 2005 ICAA Industry Innovators offer fresh, high-quality approaches that promote health, independence and quality of life for older adults in our society," says Colin Milner, the ICAA's chief executive officer. "We are pleased to recognize these accomplishments in the field of active aging."
The ICAA congratulates the following recipients of the 2005 ICAA Industry Innovators Awards:
Physical Activity Incentive Challenge-Holiday Retirement Corp., Salem, Oregon
Providing a high-quality living experience for people of retirement age is the goal of Holiday Retirement Corp., which manages independent-living retirement facilities. Holiday considers physical fitness critical to the health, happiness and independence of its 34,000 residents. To increase physical activity participation among these older adults, the organization created an annual Fitness Challenge between its residences. For this program, the exercise minutes of individuals are tracked and converted into team points. This friendly competition has had a different theme for each of the past 4 years. In 2005, the Fitness Challenge promoted a 45-day Race to Space, with the goal of amassing enough points to reach the moon, do a 'moon walk,' and return to Earth.
Holiday's innovative marketing and promotional approach to encouraging physical activity draws more participants each year. Held in 245 of Holiday's facilities, the 2005 Race to Space attracted 10,123 residents. Incidentally, they accumulated enough points for roughly 125 trips to the moon and back.
Men Making Meals/Tips for the Late-Blooming Handywoman-Broome County Office for Aging, Binghamton, New York
In their younger years, today's older adults were taught to divide household labor into strict gender roles. As a result, many men ages 60 and older have never learned to cook and their female peers often know little about home repairs and maintenance. In 2002, Broome County Office for Aging created Men Making Meals, a 6-week program that provides group cooking instruction for the age 60-plus man who is widowed or caring for a spouse with disabilities. Participants also learn safe food handling, smart grocery shopping, meal planning and cooking on a budget. Since 2004, the Office for Aging has also offered a 3-hour Lunch and Learn workshop called Tips for the Late-Blooming Handywoman. This mini-course provides older women with an overview of a basic tool kit, tips on home repairs and maintenance, and advice on when to hire a professional.
Both courses help older adults feel more confident, independent and able to function in areas they have had little experience of. Individuals socialize, learn skills and information, and discover new abilities. In addition, participants in Men Making Meals learn about good nutrition, contributing to better physical health for them and for the spouses for whom they care. The Office for Aging anticipates that men and women who participate in these courses may become more interested in participating in other programs, too.
Council on Aging Learning Advantages®-Council on Aging of Southwestern Ohio, Cincinnati, Ohio
Recruiting and retaining Home Health Aides (HHA) is an ongoing challenge in many communities across the United States. The homemaking services and personal care provided by these aides are often vital to an older adult's ability to continue living at home. But at the turn of the century, HHA turnover rates in Ohio ranged from 50% to 78% (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2001), making it difficult for many home care agencies to accept new clients. As a result, the Council on Aging of Southwestern Ohio (COA) sought ways to provide qualified aides and ensure older adults had needed assistance.
Cost and a lack of formal training sites were barriers to HHA training in the region. To address these issues, COA created the Council on Aging Learning Advantages® (COALA) program in 2000. To enroll in COALA, students pay $20. Area home care agencies may become a 'preferred provider' by paying a fee, which allows them to send individuals for training and/or to hire graduates. In addition to teaching practical skills, COALA's 75-hour curriculum develops interpersonal, problem solving, crisis management, observation, listening and communication skills, and self-esteem. This focus was deemed essential to success, as perceived lack of respect, limited decision-making capacity, and not being treated as a professional are factors that influence turnover, according to home care agencies. By helping meet today's challenges in home care, COALA is creating positive outcomes for older adults in southwestern Ohio.
SilverSneakers® Fitness Program-HealthCare Dimensions, Tempe, Arizona
HMOs become more involved in addressing the lack of physical activity among older adults through the SilverSneakers® Fitness Program. This innovative offering from HealthCare Dimensions (HCD) provides Medicare-eligible adults with age-appropriate exercise classes, as well as fitness center memberships, at no additional cost to their regular health insurance premiums. Currently, HCD partners with health plans in 31 states to offer the program to more than 1.8 million eligible Americans ages 65 and older. The SilverSneakers' model, in which HMOs extend this physical activity and preventive health intervention to their clients, is uniquely national in scope. More than 1,100 selected fitness centers and class sites across the United States offer SilverSneakers programming, which allows HCD to incorporate a national reciprocity feature into the offering. Members can enjoy the program at any network fitness center or class site in their area or any other participating location in the United States.
HCD touts SilverSneakers as a physical activity, lifestyle and socially oriented program. A group exercise setting encourages camaraderie and socialization between participants, as do the social activities and health and education seminars provided by the program. The SilverSneakers' approach has led to excellent member retention, with 97% of members saying they were 'very satisfied' or 'satisfied' with the program.
Healthy Strides-Kisco Senior Living, Carlsbad, California
Wellness is integrated into the fabric of Kisco Senior Living. Through the Healthy Strides program, the company has created a wellness culture that fosters a sense of community and connectedness between Kisco's associates and 3,400 residents. This whole-person wellness program supports physical, emotional, spiritual, intellectual, vocational and social health for both groups. "We believe that happy, healthy and well associates help engage residents to become happy, healthy and well," explains Kirsten Jewell, director of Healthy Strides. The program is now offered at Kisco's 24 congregate communities, 2 active adult apartments, and home office.
Innovative offerings under the Healthy Strides umbrella include a cognitive fitness program, a behavioral change program for sedentary and inactive individuals, theatre troupes and laughter clubs, among others. The new Posit Science Brain Health program, for example, aims to improve thinking, understanding and memory through an interactive, computer-based exercise regimen. Kisco's Bridgepoint at San Francisco community established a cognitive fitness center, and the company is continuing to pilot these centers across the country. Kisco is looking to the future with its wellness programs, which are designed to meet the needs of both present-day older adults and the up-and-coming Boomers.
Cybex|Trazer 1.1-Cybex, Medway, Massachusetts
The first recipient of the ICAA's 2005 Industry Equipment Innovator award is a fun and functional product from Cybex. Through a unique combination of interactive virtual reality and tracking technologies, the Cybex|Trazer motivates and measures movement skills in people of almost all ages and capabilities. This piece of equipment couples visual and auditory cues with immediate biofeedback to create a true mind/body experience. The user wears an infrared beacon at the waist that produces a signal sent to 2 optical sensors contained in Trazer's Simulator Core. At the same time, cues are displayed via video and audio sources to motivate movements, which are tracked by the sensors. This information is computed 250 times per second. As a result, the user becomes a 'human joy-stick,' whose every movement is represented by a character on the video screen.
More than a dozen programs are available with the Trazer, each of which addresses one or more basic movement skills, such as spatial awareness, agility, and balance. Whether in the form of games, drills or tests, these programs can be customized to match the goals and capabilities of older adult users. "Improving balance and stability is an important part of fall prevention," says the ICAA's Colin Milner, "and the Trazer is designed to achieve that goal." In addition to the Trazer, Cybex offers many more products for the active older adult.
In the coming year, in-depth articles on the 2005 ICAA Industry Innovators will appear in the ICAA's bimonthly Journal on Active Aging. These articles will profile the award-winners, providing the active aging field with the opportunity to learn more about these offerings. The Industry Innovators Awards will be presented at Active Aging 2005: The tipping point, the ICAA's conference in Orlando, Florida, from December 1-3.
Many organizations took part in this year's awards competition. The ICAA thanks all entrants for sharing their work and accomplishments, and encourages them to participate again next year.
Launched in 2003, the ICAA Industry Innovators Awards honor excellence and creativity in the health and wellness field. They also recognize organizations that have created cutting-edge programs to support active aging among adults ages 50 and older. For more information about the Innovators awards program, call the ICAA toll-free at 866-335-9777, or visit www.icaa.cc/awardsprogram.htm.
About the International Council on Active Aging
The ICAA is the world's largest association dedicated to changing the way we age by uniting and working with professionals in the retirement, assisted living, recreation, fitness, rehabilitation and wellness fields. It connects a community of like-minded professionals who share the goals of changing society's perceptions of aging and improving the quality of life for aging Baby Boomers and older adults within the 6 dimensions of wellness (emotional, vocational, physical, spiritual, intellectual, social). The Council supports these professionals with education, information, resources and tools, so they can achieve optimal success with this growing market.
The ICAA takes an active role in helping to change the way society perceives aging. The Council is one of more than 55 of the nation's most prominent health and aging organizations working to implement the National Blueprint on Aging. Contributors to the Blueprint's development include AARP, the American College of Sports Medicine, the American Geriatrics Society, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institute on Aging and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
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For interviews or more information about the ICAA, the ICAA Industry Innovators Awards, or aging-related issues, contact:
Colin Milner, CEO
International Council on Active Aging
Toll-free: 1-866-335-9777 (North America only)
Telephone: 604-734-4466
Cell: 604-763-4595
Email: colinmilner@icaa.cc
