Programs & Services
Center for Agewell Programs
Feel Better. Be in Control.
Do the Things you Want to Do!
Living Well for Better Health, also called The Chronic Disease Self-Management Program (© 2006 Stanford University) is a nationally recognized workshop given in 2 ½ hour sessions once a week for six weeks.
Living Well for Better Health is open to adults of all ages who have ongoing health problems or care for people who do. Workshops are facilitated by two trained leaders, one or both of whom are non-health professionals (referred to as lay leaders). Leaders often have chronic diseases themselves.
Workshops are highly participative, where mutual support and success build the participants’ confidence in their ability to manage their health and maintain active fulfilling lives. Together participants will learn to:
- Deal with frustration, pain, and isolation
- Exercise effectively for maintaining and improving strength, flexibility, and endurance
- Use medications appropriately
- Communicate effectively with family, friends, and health professionals
- Establish a personal nutrition plan
- Evaluate new treatments
- Set personal goals and problem-solve barriers to accomplishing them
Living Well for Better Health workshops are proven to work. The Division of Family and Community Medicine in the School of Medicine at Stanford University developed, tested and evaluated this program and found the following:
- People, who took the program, when compared to those who did not, demonstrated significant improvements in exercise, cognitive symptom management, and communication with physicians, self-reported general health, health distress, fatigue, disability, and social/role activities and limitations.
- Spent fewer days in the hospital
- Trend toward fewer outpatient visits and hospitalizations
- Cost to savings ratio of 1:10
What is the cost?
The fee is $10 for the entire 6-week series. Scholarships are available. A workbook and CD are available for loan or purchase.
Interested in attending a workshop?
Check out our schedule of available workshops or visit the National Council on Aging to learn more about their online workshops.
Living Well Flyer - PDF
*Lorig KR, Sobel DS, Stewart AL, Brown Jr BW, Ritter PL, González VM, Laurent DD, Holman HR. Evidence suggesting that a chronic disease self-management program can improve health status while reducing utilization and costs: A randomized trial. Medical Care, 37(1):5-14, 1999
