International Rural Aging Project

Conference Information-Press Releases

Aging Well Project Spotlighted at Conference 
Calhoun County Demonstration Project at 
Forefront of Rural Aging Issues 

CHARLESTON, WV (June 9, 2000) – The Aging Well in Calhoun County Demonstration Project is the highlight of today’s session of the International Conference on Rural Aging. An international audience saw firsthand how Calhoun County is addressing their rural aging issues. A collaborative effort between West Virginia University Center on Aging and the Calhoun County community, the demonstration project is a real life example on how communities and educational institutions can work together to find solutions to rural aging issues. “The project is a great example of how rural communities face challenges and address barriers by utilizing collaboration, maximizing existing resources and showing courage and creativity to modify, revise and challenge the old way of doing things,” says Suzanne Leizear with the Center on Aging in Calhoun County. “As a result, the elderly in Calhoun County are enjoying a better quality of life.”

Local community members identified several areas of need of local seniors, such as individualized transportation, medication assistance, general information and education about available services, health, wellness and prevention activities and strengthening of the volunteer force. As a result, Aging Well implemented the Aging Well Transportation Program, which uses a passenger vehicle to transport seniors for whom a bus or van is not appropriate, a service awareness program that places brochure racks with service and agency information throughout the county and a telephone information and referral line. 

Medical Access activities include providing training to doctors and the community about assistance programs, helping doctors access additional supplies and medication samples and providing medication record cards and set-up boxes to help seniors manage their medications. MDTV, an interactive video network based at West Virginia University’s Health Sciences Center in Morgantown and Charleston, allows specialists to confer with patients in rural locations and their primary care physicians.

“In West Virginia, we have seen a good part of the last two generations of our citizens move off to more industrialized and economically healthy regions,” says Robert M. D’Alessandri, M.D., Vice President for Health Sciences at West Virginia University. “This pattern of out-migration from rural communities is a worldwide phenomenon. The demographic changes that result fron this population shift are among the causes of our current challenges regarding the rural elderly, both in West Virginia and globally, challenges that are being met in Calhoun County.” 

The conference, which is part of the four-year United Nations Programme on Ageing sponsored International Rural Aging Project (1997-2001) to address problems affecting elderly persons in rural and remote communities, will review and integrate the latest research to provide input to the International Plan of Action on Aging. This plan will be presented to the XVIIth International Congress of Gerontology, Vancouver, Canada, in 2001. In addition to academics and policy makers, the conference will attract practitioners who are familiar with the issues of rural aging, including health professionals, social workers and community activists from around the world.

The West Virginia University Center on Aging has been named by the United Nations Programme on Ageing as its advisory organization on rural aging issues. The Center on Aging of the Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center manages educational programs, research projects, health care projects, community service and outreach programs, and evaluation of programs contributing to increasing the quality of life for the elderly.