It finally came together....

Last year I was asked to be part of a team who would be creating a new program for older adults in all of Southern Idaho. Myself and three others came to our first meeting really excited and ready to go....what we didn't know was the amount of work that was headed our way! We were NOT prepared for what we were about to experience.

Since October we have been building this project from the ground up. The program is called Reducing Risk in Senior Living and is funded by a cooperative in Washington D.C. This program will be implemented around southern Idaho and is a class designed for seniors to come and learn about the importance of living in a safe environment. We cover home safety (food safety/preparation, fire prevention, home security and emergency preparedness), fall prevention and exercises and medication safety (reducing medication errors). We did all the research and developed all the class materials. Its been a great learning experience for me and I've really enjoyed watching it all slowly coming together.

We held 2 training sessions for reps from other hospitals around Idaho to come and learn how to implement this program in their own hospitals and communities. We had a fun time with the training and we're excited to watch it pop up around Idaho.





We held our first class last Thursday here at Portneuf. We had 25 people show up which is a great turn out for a class like this. The participants had a great time and we received some really great feedback which made us really excited for the rest of our upcoming classes.




In all my glory teaching the Home Safety portion of the class! It was great! They are such a great population to work with and they were all really fun to get to know!

I have felt really fortunate to be a part of this 4 man team! We have struggled, screamed, laughed, sweat, cried, laughed, stressed, laughed and just about every other emotion getting to this point but now we are EXCITED and impressed with ourselves and all our hard work!