Promoting Healthy Aging Initiatives

PEARLS —Program to Encourage Active, Rewarding Lives for Seniors

The Program to Encourage Active, Rewarding Lives for Seniors (PEARLS) is a community program to treat older adults with disabilities who also cope with minor depression. PEARLS is an outgrowth of a five-year research project conducted in collaboration with the University of Washington’s Health Promotion Research Center.

The study showed that home-based depression management counseling significantly reduced symptoms of depression and improved the health of chronically medically ill older adults with minor depression.

PEARLS has been available to case management clients of the Area Agency on Aging in King County since 2001. In 2007, Aging & Disability Services invested $116,000 of state and local funds in this program. The 2008 budget is $490,000 and includes funding from the King County Veterans & Human Services Levy.

Information

For more information about this program:

• Read the Journal of the American Medical Association article published in April 2004.
• Call Aging & Disability Services in the Seattle Human Services Department at 206-684-0660 or e-mail aginginfo@seattle.gov.