Pennsylvania’s Deputy Secretary for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, Joanne Grossi, recently visited Center in the Park for a discussion with staff and program participants about the benefits of the chronic disease self management program, Harvest Health.

Over the past four years, Center in the Park has been the community service provider of an evidence-based chronic disease self-management program, Harvest Health. The Program was funded by the Philadelphia Corporation for Aging through a grant from the U.S. Administration on Aging in collaboration with the Albert Einstein Healthcare Network and the Center for Applied Research on Aging and Health (CARAH) at Thomas Jefferson University. Researchers from CARAH are analyzing the results and outcomes of the program’s implementation by CIP.

Harvest Health has been delivered to over 700 African American elders during the grant period. The free classes teach persons with chronic diseases how to better manage their symptoms, adhere to medication schedules and maintain their functional ability. Participants learn techniques to cope with chronic conditions, such as frustration, pain, tiredness and isolation. Other topics covered are exercise, nutrition and communicating with family, friends and health professionals. The purpose of the Harvest Health program is to enable participants to assume a major role in managing their health conditions.

In its efforts to sustain the program and offer it to a wider audience, CIP staff is meeting with potential funders, public health experts and others interested in programs which can reduce utilization of the healthcare system and help to eliminate health disparities to share information about the positive outcomes for participants in the Harvest Health Program. Two staff members of Center in the Park, Delores Palmer and Paul Hopkins, are Master Trainers in the CDSMP, having been trained at Stanford University.

Center in the Park is a community center that promotes positive aging and fosters community connections for older adults in Northwest Philadelphia, whose voices are critical instruments in shaping its activities and direction. CIP is accredited by the National Institute of Senior Centers, a unit of the National Council on Aging as a provider of excellent programs, activities and services for its active membership of more than 5,000 and its 1,000 homebound clients.