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Posts categorized under Healthy Aging Archives - Page 4 of 6 - Human Interests

Serving the Community: Seattle’s COVID-19 Emergency Food Response

The City of Seattle recently released a report about the 2020-2021 emergency food response during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic and thanking the many partners involved in supporting our residents. Since the beginning, food security has been a top concern as the unprecedented health and economic crisis dramatically… [ Keep reading ]

HSD Staff Respond to Record-Breaking Heatwave

In response to record-breaking heat over the last week, City of Seattle’s Human Services Department (HSD) employees were in touch with our unsheltered and aging neighbors, worked to set up and staff cooling centers and shelters, assisted in water distribution and logistics, and prepared to serve residents in need and respond to requests from emergency operations.

As the City of Seattle Reimagines Public Safety, Mayor Durkan and Fire Chief Scoggins Announce the Launch of Second Health One Unit Extending Service to University District and Ballard

Mayor Jenny A. Durkan and Fire Chief Harold Scoggins announced today the launch of a second Health One unit to expand regular service of the program to Ballard and the University District. The second unit begins operating on April 15 and will be staffed with a team of two specially trained firefighter/EMTs and a case manager from the Human Services Department Aging and Disability Services Division. The team will serve people with non-emergency 9-1-1 calls with issues like substance abuse, non-emergency medical issues and a need to access services. Health One continues to focus on providing alternatives to transporting individuals to hospital emergency departments.

Age Friendly Seattle 2020 Annual Report

The Seattle Human Services Department is pleased to present Age Friendly Seattle’s 2020 Annual Report, highlighting accomplishments from the past year. In addition, please read Age Friendly Seattle program manager Brent Butler’s article in the March issue of AgeWise, the monthly e-zine published by the Seattle-King County Advisory Council on Aging & Disability Services, “Age Friendly Seattle Increases Access and Inclusion Despite COVID.”

What a Year! Thank you.

As 2020 comes to a close, I hope you and your loved ones are healthy and as well as one can be in what has surely been one of the more challenging years we have faced as a department. Back in January, we already knew that “change” would be a theme this year. One of the city’s top priorities for the year was to help stand-up and launch the new King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA). For HSD, this included transitioning our Homeless Strategy and Investment division staff and contracts to a co-location space with their County peers, followed by CEO on-boarding and development of a staffing plan. While that work has been underway all year, little did we know at the start of 2020 that a global pandemic like nothing seen in at least a century was already underway. Not only did that slow the progress of this work, it lead to most employees shifting to work from home, being reassigned, and changing work plans. Plus significant impacts to our economy and unimaginable changes to how each of us conduct our daily lives. With homelessness response transitioning to the KCRHA, our department planned to spend much of the year redefining how it exists within the human services space. HSD planned to work with staff, service providers, and clients to co-create a roadmap for the future. This work launched in February – during Black History Month – with an understanding that race and social justice should underpin everything that we were going to talk about. The public health crisis forced us to pause that work almost immediately. Little did we know the paradigm shift coming in the summer as the support for Black Lives Matter took on new meaning for our general society and millions more people “awoke” to the understanding that it’s time to rethink how we spend our tax dollars and how our governments respond to the needs of the community. HSD staff and our community partners have been a part of the front-line response to COVID-19, pivoting programs and rising to the many challenges to help those most in need. I am deeply proud of the work we have accomplished together during this crisis. Our mission “to connect people with resources and solutions during times of need so we can all live, learn, work, and take part in strong, healthy communities” took on a much greater sense of urgency in 2020, even as we managed our ongoing work.

Legacy of Love: A Virtual Forum for African American Caregivers and Others

Are you a caregiver? If so, you are welcome to join Legacy of Love, an online forum on Saturday, Nov. 14, from 12 noon to 2 p.m. While focused on African American caregivers, the event is open to anyone who provides special care for an elder.

City of Seattle’s Mobile Integrated Health Partnership Wins National Award

On September 22, Aging and Disability Services, a division of the Seattle Human Services Department (HSD), received a 2020 n4a Aging Innovation Award from the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging (n4a) for their involvement in the City of Seattle’s Mobile Integrated Health partnership. The award was presented on the second day of the n4a’s four-day virtual national 2020 conference.

Age Friendly Seattle Virtual Events

Age Friendly Seattle virtual events—Civic Coffee Hours and a new series, Close to Home: Stories of Health, Tech and Resilience—offer older adults in the greater Seattle area a weekly opportunity to stay connected. You’ll learn how local government, nonprofit organizations, and community members cope with the “new normal” of COVID-19 and a wealth of other topics. Join us to get this valuable information, ask questions, and get answers!

Video Update: Food Access Programs Help Older Adults and People Experiencing Homelessness

COVID-19 has left 1.6 million people in Washington state struggling to put food on the table. The need is especially high in parts of Seattle and South King County. For many communities facing food insecurity, their situation has been made even more challenging with meal and food bank programs impacted… [ Keep reading ]

Seattle Human Services Partners with Providers to Maintain Support

For many communities facing food insecurity, COVID-19 has made a challenging situation even more difficult with meal and food bank programs impacted by the crisis. A number of food banks have reduced hours or their volunteers are not able to come in to help like they did before. Other programs face shortages of food resources. To meet this growing need in Seattle and surrounding communities, the City of Seattle partnered with the National Guard at the request of service providers. Locally, the National Guard has stepped up to fill gaps in our food network by offering the assistance of hundreds of members in Food Lifeline‘s SODO distribution center and at several food banks in the region. Even with all of these helping hands, some of our smaller community-based programs struggle to keep up with their usual activities, not to mention the increased demands brought on by this public health emergency. After re-deploying staff to support shifts in the City’s de-intensifying shelters at Miller and Garfield community centers, and working to open additional shelter capacity around the city, the Seattle Human Services Department (HSD) has been working to find ways to ensure these important food programs can also continue to operate. This month, we began re-deploying HSD employees to support shifts ranging from food preparation and cooking, to assembling bags and packaging meals, to line management and delivering food directly to vulnerable clients in their homes. Some of our staff who are vulnerable themselves are taking on administrative tasks that can be completed remotely from their homes. We gathered photos and reflections from some of their recent work with South Park Senior Center’s senior meal program…