Aaliyah Messiah (POCAAN Program Director),Theresa Kehne (ADRC/MBWC), and Genevieve Wanucha (ADRC/MBWC)
In our first in-person outreach event in a year, we took part in the Immunity in Community Wellness Fair, held by POCAAN (People of Color Against AIDS Network) and Seattle & King County Public Health on Friday, June 25 on Rainier Ave. Our table at the event offered resources for care partners and people living with memory loss or dementia. We spread the word about upcoming education/support opportunities through the UW Memory and Brain Wellness Center/ADRC and WA State Alzheimer's Association.
Yvonne (POCAAN) visits our table to explore our resources.
We felt fortunate to be outside in the summer air, meeting people and having important conversations together. "It meant a lot to hear people’s stories about how memory loss has impacted their lives in different ways," says Theresa Kehne, ADRC Research Coordinator, who helped staff our resource table.
Deeply embedded in the local community since 1987, POCAAN is a non-profit social services organization that has worked to ensure equitable access to HIV/AIDS education, prevention, and health care resources for marginalized communities. We met Aaliyah Messiah, POCAAN Program Director, who started the organization’s case management program thirty years ago during the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. She shared some hopeful and exciting news! POCAAN has received a new funding award from the King County Veterans, Seniors & Human Services Levy (VSHSL) to launch a program called Senior Medical Mobile Outreach services, or SMMO.
This new POCAAN program is primarily for people of color and low-income older adults (aged 55+) in King County who need medical, behavioral health, and social services. The SMMO team, including newly hired nursing and social work staff, will routinely visit approximately 20 senior centers and senior affordable housing buildings in underserved and rural areas of King County.
“COVID-19 identified the isolation and mental health issues experienced by homebound older adults. We wanted to see how we could provide direct support to this population,” said Messiah. “Our goal with SMMO is to identify people who need our services and provide care, and most importantly, to gain peoples’ trust.”
The ADRC, in partnership with the Memory and Brain Wellness Center, is excited for this connection with POCAAN as they pursue this targeted effort to help seniors get the care they need and deserve. We hope to provide a link for the SMMO team to resources and education about cognitive health and Alzheimer’s disease and related causes of dementia and can't wait to visit them again soon.
Thank you to David Cole of the POCAAN SAGE-SMMO Program Case Management team for inviting us to participate at Immunity in Community! Thank you to MBWC/ADRC's Dr. Kimiko Domoto Reilly and Marigrace Becker for helping make this happen!
