Senior Services

The Senior Nutrition Program provides nutritious meals and an opportunity for socialization. Congregate Meals are offered at two meal sites during the week with an evening meal and daytime meals to meet the needs of as many clients as possible.

Hot congregate meals are served three times a week.

• Monday at 6:30 p.m. at The First Baptist Church in Dove Creek
• Tuesday and Thursday at 12:00 noon at the Cahone Senior Center in Cahone.

Home delivered meals are delivered three times a week on the same days. Frozen home delivered meals are provided for the homebound for Wednesday and Friday or when no hot meals are served. Also, a week’s worth of frozen meals are delivered on Friday for homebound clients who live at a distance that prevents hot meal delivery.

Senior and Public Transportation provides a Demand Response Transit service for area residents. Service hours are 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday - Friday and for prescheduled special events. A 24-hour notice is requested to schedule rides. Scheduling of rides is determined on a first call basis.

Transportation is provided from Dove Creek to surrounding communities of Cahone, Egnar, Pleasant View, Cortez, and Durango in Colorado, and to Monticello and Moab in Utah, and to Farmington, New Mexico. In scheduling, medical access trips take precedence. A set fare schedule for public clients and a suggested donation schedule for senior clients is provided. Medicaid transportation is also provided through cooperation with Social Services in identifying clients that qualify.

The Homechore and Homemaker Program provides services to the elderly in their home. Home Chore provides services designed to increase the safety of the individual through minor home modification and chore maintenance. Homemaker services provide light housekeeping services for the elderly in their homes when they are not able to do activities of daily living themselves. They receive two hours a week of light housekeeping, laundry, minor cooking, and errands as needed.

The National Family Caregiver Program provides information, assistance, respite care, and supplemental services to the Caregiver who is taking care of their loved ones at home. We provide a hot home delivered meal for the caregiver to enjoy with their loved one.

We also provide a Carelink Button for their loved one to be used in case of emergency such as a fall. This enables the Caregiver to be able to go to work, appointments, or shopping without worrying about the safety of the one they are caring for.

Because being a Caregiver is demanding emotionally, physically, and financially we offer a Caregiver Forum and Provider Fair once a year, usually in the fall, at the Cortez Senior Center.

This Forum brings professionals and Caregivers together in a daylong event. The professionals provide valuable information and education for the Caregiver. The Caregivers are encouraged to interact with the professionals and the providers gaining the support from the community they need to do the privileged work they do.

As a follow-up and as continuing support for the Caregivers, we provide three Lunch & Learn sessions throughout the year, in December, March, and June, with a continuation of information, education, and support for the Caregivers. We also are offering Tools for the Caregiver classes. These classes will be offered in April in Dove Creek, in May/June in Cortez and in August in Dove Creek. These classes will teach the caregiver to take care of themselves while caring for a relative or friend. The classes will give the caregiver the tools to help reduce stress, communicate effectively with other family members, reduce guilt, anger, and depression, help the caregiver make tough decisions and set goals and problem solve. Each class participant will receive a book to accompany the class content. This book contains information on hiring in-home help, helping memory impaired elders, understanding depression, making legal and financial decisions, making decisions about driving, and making decisions about facility placement. The class sizes are limited, so if you would like to attend these classes, please call Audrey at the Senior Center at 562-4626.

The Health Promotion programs provide information, education, and support to its participants to encourage small lifestyle changes to improve quality of life.

Through a grant received from the Comprecare Foundation, there will be three, 6-week sessions. The classes are offered once a week for 2 ½ hours in the evening from 6:30-9:00. The classes are evidenced based programs developed by Stanford University. They are the Chronic Disease Self Management and Chronic Disease Self-Management for Diabetes classes.

We also offer a case management program for Depression as a result of Chronic Disease called “Healthy Ideas”. “Healthy Ideas” was developed by the National Council on Aging. It provides information, education, and support through home visits to homebound clients. For more information about these classes and when they will be offered, please call Audrey at the Senior Center at 562-4626.

The Health Promotion program also provides three exercise opportunities. The senior walk is held for one hour on Mon, Wed, and Fri at the Memorial Hall Gym from 9:00am to 10:00am in Dove Creek. There is transportation available for this. Please contact the Senior Center at 562-4626 for more information.

Arthritis Tai Chi is holding 4 sessions a week, 2 in Dove Creek, and 2 in Cahone. It is the evidenced based, fall prevention program developed by the Arthritis Foundation and requires a trained instructor.

A bi-weekly stretching, strengthening, and balance class at Therapy Solutions follows the Chronic Disease Self-Management class in an effort to continue the healthy lifestyle changes resulting from the class.

The Senior Health Insurance Program (SHIP’s) provides Medicare counseling for clients who need information and assistance to understand Medicare. The information covers Medicare A, B, C, D and Medicare supplemental insurance.

Adult Resources for Care and Help (ARDC) provides information and assistance, and options counseling for clients enabling them to remain independent as long as possible. ARDC provides ease of access, visibility, responsiveness, and effectiveness regarding information to services.

ARDC is available to seniors age 60+ and adults 18+ with disabilities who need information about long-term support services or assistance accessing those services.

The Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP) provides once a month delivery of a food box to low income seniors.

Outreach Services includes a monthly newsletter that contains nutritional education, menu, and dietary analysis for the senior nutrition meal program. It also includes articles that inform and encourage participation in the senior programs offered at the Senior Center. Senior Services Programs are also listed on the Dolores County Web Site and DCTV, local TV station.