Location:

St. Paul, Minnesota

 

Type of Organization:

Public Health Organization

  Seniors Providing Elder Care
Agency Description: The Senior Recovery Program is a nonprofit chemical health organization dedicated to providing both treatment and ongoing support for senior men and women, 50 years of age or older, who are abusing or have become dependent on alcohol, street drugs or prescribed medications. Their mission is "to provide affordable treatment and continued support for adults, 50 years of age or older, suffering from addiction so they may reclaim happy, productive lives. The goal of these efforts is to provide a better quality of life and health for citizens throughout our community, allowing them to live independently for as long as possible."

Project Description: The Senior Recovery Program received funding for culturally-specific programming to reduce chemical dependency for Twin Cities seniors, known as Seniors Providing Elder Care (SPEC). The SPEC program, funded by the Minnesota Department of Human Services, provides treatment and ongoing support for adults 50 years of age or older who are abusing or have become dependent on alcohol, street drugs, or prescribed medications. SPEC’s goal is to improve the quality of life and health of older adults throughout the Twin Cities metropolitan area allowing them to live independently for as long as possible. SPEC’s approach is to hire staff who are 50 years of age or older and believe that their client’s success is due, in part, to receiving services from staff in their age group.

ACET services: ACET collaborated with SPEC staff to develop a logic model and evaluation plan, revise existing instruments to ensure their alignment with the logic model and evaluation plan, develop an online system for data entry and tracking, and develop focus group scripts for use with SPEC clients and staff. The evaluation included facilitation of focus group sessions with SPEC clients and staff, analyses of data from focus group discussions, pre/post assessments of clients' level of functioning and program satisfaction, and reporting of outcome data.

Date of Service: 2009-Present