2010 Award Winner

HOPE – Healthy outcomes of Preventive Engagements

Category - Improving Evidence-based Practice

The Problem

Immigrant seniors face often serious isolation because of linguistic and cultural barriers, reduced mobility, and a lack of opportunities to interact with people of their age and culture. This isolation can result in a lack of activity as well as depression and mental health problems, all of which contribute to overall health deterioration.

The Innovation

The community support service agency Human Endeavour launched a pilot project in 2005 designed to bring together isolated immigrant seniors from the South Asian community in Vaughan and provide them with a non faith-based platform with culturally appropriate services in their language and neighbourhood. The HOPE – Healthy outcomes of Preventive Engagements project developed into an innovative wellness program, combining health system, prevention and settlement education. It addressed issues like isolation, physical and mental health, recreation, wellness, prevention and caregiver support by creating partnerships with various organizations and service providers. Seniors were provided free transportation, thus enhancing their independence and reducing the burden of transportation on their caregivers.

In 2006, Community Home Assistance to Seniors partnered with Human Endeavour to expand the program, launching an initiative for Tamil seniors in 2007. Further expansion occurred through the Ontario government's "Aging at Home Strategy" in 2008. Weekly programs are now conducted at five locations and provide various services in six languages to hundreds of immigrant seniors.

The Results

Qualitative surveys of the HOPE program indicate that it has improved seniors' self-esteem, reduced stress, increased their physical stamina, improved their relations with family and given them more ability to access information and learn new skills.

Quantitative surveys of 143 randomly selected seniors were conducted in 2010 to assess the physical health and improvements that they had experienced as a direct result of program participation. The results were as follows:

93% said they had become more aware of their health
83% said their health improved due to these engagements
52% reported improvement in arthritis conditions
30% reported improvement in diabetes
23.81% reported improvement in high blood pressure
19.44% reported improvement in their cholesterol level
21% reported reduction in regular medication intake because of health improvements

Next Steps

Human Endeavour is developing a long-term sustainability plan for the HOPE project. It is also taking steps to build capacity of smaller groups and organizations to develop successful programs using best practices of HOPE project. In addition, there are plans to partner with a university and group of organizations to conduct research on the project and its positive outcomes, with an eye to continuing its expansion.