BERKS COUNTY, Pa. \u2014 Experts say growing older comes with new challenges. Managing medications. Staying healthy. And understanding how your body changes.<\/p>\n
That’s the goal behind a new program called WISE \u2014 the Wellness Initiative for Senior Education.<\/p>\n
“It’s a six-session program where we look at all different issues that are part of the aging process… safe medication management… addiction… gambling… and some of the challenges that older adults face,” said Marcia Goodman-Hinnershitz, director of planning and resource development for the Council on Chemical Abuse.<\/p>\n
Berks County is one of only four counties in Pennsylvania chosen for the pilot program.<\/p>\n
State officials say nearly 600 Pennsylvanians age 55 and older died from an overdose last year. Many of those cases involved prescription opioids.<\/p>\n
“A lot of the overdoses are from opioid drugs. Opioid drugs are prescribed by physicians as pain relievers… so it’s an important population to be able to talk to about how you need to make mindful decisions about your use of opioids,” Goodman-Hinnershitz said.<\/p>\n
But organizers say the program isn’t just about addiction.<\/p>\n
“It’s really for anyone who’s looking at healthy living, communicating with your doctor, managing your medications and talking about ways to avoid substances,” said Katie Ketchmark, deputy director of the Berks County Area Agency on Aging.<\/p>\n
The program begins in October.<\/p>\n
“The WISE program is six sessions. We will be holding them here at the South Campus in October during the afternoon. It’s two-hour sessions and it will include lunch for participants,” Ketchmark said.<\/p>\n
Anyone interested can register through the Berks County Area Agency on Aging until mid-September.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BERKS COUNTY, Pa. \u2014 Experts say growing older comes with new challenges. Managing medications. Staying healthy. And understanding…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259967,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[14672,349,98289,110310,3797,18036,5560,67713,128,130,129,19747],"class_list":["post-259966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-addiction","tag-berks-county","tag-berks-county-area-agency-on-aging","tag-council-on-chemical-abuse","tag-october","tag-older-adults","tag-overdoses","tag-pilot-program","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-wellness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}