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Senior Adult Ministries
We offer many programs and services that give senior adults and those who care about them opportunities to care for one another, to challenge one another, to participate in crafts and the arts, to share educational and travel experiences, and to offer care and support.
If aging is not your issue, it soon will be!
Older persons are the most diverse and, therefore, the most fascinating! We’d love for you to join us as we explore our maturity and deepen our faith together.
Areas of the Senior Ministry include:
Senior Center
LOPC’s Senior Center has operated continuously for 29 years and is a social model day respite program.. The program serves frail older adults who benefit from a consistent, caring community providing opportunities for socialization, challenging activities, shared meals and entertainment.
The program is entirely operated by volunteers and deacons. On any given Thursday 40 – 65 people participate, including guests, volunteers and caregivers. The program attracts many residents of local assisted living facilities, members of the community, and members of LOPC. As one of our regulars (Sylvia C.) has said, “God always takes time to come here on Thursdays.” Come check us out in Fellowship Hall! The program takes a vacation from mid July through August, beginning again after Labor Day.
For more information please contact the church office at (925) 283-8722 .
First Friday Forum
The first Friday of each month from January through June, First Friday Forum brings nationally and locally prominent experts to speak on a variety of topics of general interest and to challenge minds and hearts.
Forum lectures attract many people from the community at large and are very well attended. The FFF program for 2009 has been scheduled and can be viewed here.
For more information please contact the church office at (925) 283-8722 .
Friendship Travel
Bus tours provide day trips to local places of interest, with historical, natural, artistic and spiritual significance.
For more information please contact the church office at (925) 283-8722
Widow/Widower Grief Recovery
This is a 10-week, closed group session using a national model which offers a structured approach for persons needing to work through their experiences of loss of a spouse, within a safe, healing environment.
For more information please click here or contact the church office at (925) 283-8722
Tai Chi
Classes are led by a trained Tai Chi practitioner who was born in China and trained by a Chinese master here in the United States. Classes always begin with a Qui Gong warm up which helps students focus and breathe correctly. Tai Chi emphasizes concentration, correct breathing, balance, stretching, and serenity, and offers many health benefits. Many students attend regularly, but the instructor invites everyone to come and observe and join the class on a drop in basis as well.
Classes are available Mondays from 10 – 11 a.m. in Fellowship Hall. Classes cease during the summer. Join us for this popular individualized practice. It’s OK to just show up!
For more information please contact the church office at (925) 283-8722
Rossmoor Parishes
Operational since the 1990s, the Rossmoor Parish Structure nurtures LOPC members who live in the Rossmoor community and benefit from bi-monthly telephone contacts. This structure may identify need for transportation or other interventions and offers members a way to care for one another.
The parishes sponsor social events such as luncheons and dinners for members. Get involved if you are a Rossmoor member.
For more information please contact the church office at (925) 283-8722
Noteables
First established in 1991, the Noteables is a singing group of about 40 members. They perform often, especially during the holiday season, in a variety of venues, including at skilled nursing facilities, assisted living facilities, at Rossmoor events, and at the Lafayette Orinda Presbyterian Church’s Senior Center program where they are popular regulars. The group also is available to sing for memorial services.
If you want to learn more or join this group, please contact the church office at (925) 283-8722 .
Chaplaincy
The Chaplain provides visitation in hospitals and sub-acute facilities, in assisted living, and to those who are homebound. The Chaplain is a member of the LOPC’s Triage Team, working with the pastors, congregational care support staff, deacons, and the Senior Care Coordinator. The Chaplain is active both within the Rossmoor community and the congregation as a whole.
If you know someone who needs chaplaincy services and/or visits, please contact the church office at (925) 283-8722 .
Senior Care Coordination
The Senior Care Coordinator is available to meet with senior adults and their family members to discuss individual concerns. The Coordinator can help with assessments and referrals to professional or specialty services and agencies. The Coordinator participates in the Care Planning Team and visits Church members who may need assistance as they move from hospital to sub-acute facilities or to assisted living or who face issues about choosing appropriate care. She is available to assist couples who face difficult issues about caring for one another as they age. Contact Barbara Whittingham at (925) 283-8722 ext 239.
Guided Autobiography Project
This project prepares LOPC Senior Center volunteer staff to act as guides and interview guests and one another using a set of questions. Unlike similar projects, the primary product to be produced is the building and deepening of relationships among project participants. Interviews may be recorded and written records and photos will be produced and edited for inclusion into a book to be published by the Senior Center. Interviewers will be interviewed and will also be asked to discuss how participation in the project affected them and helped them to deepen their relationships with interviewees. Senior adults whose functional abilities limit their direct participation will be assisted by family members, caregivers, or peers at the Senior Center. The completed book will be available for each participant. With this project the Senior Center hopes to learn more about its participants, deepen respect between individuals, increase opportunities for relationship and caring, and learn more about the challenges and joys in each individual’s life. The first publication will be dedicated to Edna Losey, who, at 100 years of age, is currently the Center’s most senior member. This is an ongoing project. The training module is available for review. If you are interested in participating or would like to review the guide materials, please call Barbara Whittingham at (925) 283-8722 ext 239. We especially need interviewers and writers.
Wounded Healers
The Senior Adult Ministry is sponsoring a new group called Wounded Healers. This is an opportunity for LOPC members who are involved in the ministry of caring for others. The group will be intentionally small and time limited. Didactic, Biblical and symbolic materials and methods will be used to assist participants to connect in new ways to their own woundedness as it impacts their ability to care for others with their whole selves. Participants will be asked to pledge confidentiality and will be assisted to gain familiarity with techniques to assist, guide, deepen, and support their own caregiver journeys. Contact Barbara Whittingham at (925) 283-8722 ext 239. The group will begin when we have received enough calls of interest.
All Church Poetry Project
Senior Adult Ministries is sponsoring a Poetry Project inviting all LOPC poets to participate. Poetry offers a unique medium for people to express their deeper selves, to connect with others, and to express their faith. Consider sharing your poems! The Poetry Project will begin accepting poems for consideration by an editorial review board in late 2007. Please do not submit any poems prior to this time. Each individual may submit up to five poems for consideration. Poems must be original and address a broadly spiritual theme. If your poem(s) is selected, you will be contacted by phone, email, or letter. Selected poems will be published and donations for the book of poetry will be accepted as a benefit for the Lafayette Orinda Presbyterian Church’s Senior Center, which serves fragile older adults in the greater community.
For more information please contact the church office at (925) 283-8722.
Social Work Assistant Internships
Senior Adult Ministries is offering several internships to young adults (high school or college aged) to work with the Senior Care coordinator and others in a team setting, to learn and practice skills useful in working with senior adults in the community. Specifically, interns will work with guests and others associated with the Senior Center program to perform social work assessments in the home, develop care plays, learn about community and church resources, make referrals, and review issues using theological and other resources, looking at issues of health and disease, and death and dying. Internships begin mid July 2007 and continue through August. Contact Ben at (925) 283-8722 ext 232 or Barbara at same number ext 239.
Targeted Community Partnerships
LOPC Senior Adult Ministries participates in two community partnerships, one with Caring Hands, associated with the John Muir Health Care System, and one with Senior Helpline Services. The John Muir partnership assigns volunteers to care for individual senior adults over time. Volunteers are trained to provide one to one personalized assistance which can include helping individuals with a variety of tasks to enable them to remain in their own homes and be independent. Volunteers are assigned to one client and develop and deepen relationships over time. Tasks rarely involve driving.
Our newest partnership is with Senior Helpline Services/Home Alone Too which provides a telephone reassurance program and individualized rides for older adults to physician and dental appointments, grocery shopping, to church functions and to the Senior Center at LOPC. LOPC’s specific project with the Helpline program is called “Home Alone Too.” There is no charge for program services, but clients must meet eligibility criteria. LOPC’s specific program module must provide volunteers in order to access priority service for members who qualify.
We feel that our targeted community partnerships offer specific benefits to our senior adult members and to anyone who wishes wish to help senior adults remain in their own homes and be as active as possible. All of our programs and projects are initiated, guided, and sustained by people interested in developing their ministries, using their unique talents and skills, to the service of God. Our programs exist and are improved by your participation. We invite you to call us
For more information please contact the church office at (925) 283-8722.
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