COTTAGE Program
Tucson, Arizona
Contact:
Donna Wagner
Director, Elder Services
COPE Behavioral Services, Inc.
101 S. Stone Ave.
Tucson, AZ 85701
Phone: 520-879-6634
Fax: 520-624-8286
Sponsoring Organization
COPE Behavioral Services is a not-for-profit behavioral health organization with nearly 30 years’ experience providing innovative solutions to community problems.
By developing and promoting healthy environments and quality health care, COPE provides its clients and community members the opportunity to overcome social barriers to wellness and achieve healthy lives. COPE works collaboratively to enact sustainable solutions to personal and family problems as well as broader community issues. COPE focuses on four supports:
- Equipping individuals and families with the skills and resources to effectively address behavioral health problems.
- Creating employment opportunities for the poor and homeless.
- Developing affordable housing for community residents.
- Building strategic alliances and collaborative services to address pressing community health needs.
COPE has a multidisciplinary staff of over 325 people, including counselors, case managers, psychologists, psychiatrists, nurses, educators, information technology experts, evaluators, administrators, and support personnel. COPE partners with individual clients, families, and the community to serve as a catalyst for positive behavioral change. A growing list of allies includes funders (both private and governmental), community and faith-based organizations, primary health care providers, social service providers, and volunteers.
About the Program
The COTTAGE Program at COPE is an outreach and early intervention program that serves adults aged 65 years and older. The program also has a strong focus on community education and coalition building in southern Arizona. It began in 2002, as an expansion of COPE’s Elder Services Department, to provide outreach and services for at-risk elders in the Tucson metropolitan area and the surrounding rural areas in Pima County, Arizona.
Demographics
Among the clients served by the COTTAGE Program at COPE, the average age is 77 years old; 84% are female and 16% are male; 80% are Euro-American and 20% are Latino; 10% are primarily Spanish speakers and 34% live in rural areas of southern Arizona.
Outreach, Community Education, and Coalition Building
Professional presentations about the program and education about issues in behavioral health and aging are conducted throughout the service area of Pima County, Arizona. These presentations are targeted to consumers at senior centers and to professionals in the aging network, primary care settings, and the behavioral health service system. Through relationships developed via these presentations, COTTAGE has developed strong linkages to the aging network of service providers and primary care. These linkages served as the foundation for the development of the Behavioral Health and Aging Coalition of Southern Arizona, a recognized chapter of the State Coalition.
Services
The COTTAGE Program provides short-term, in-home counseling services for adults aged 65 years and older. These services are based on four evidence-based practices in geriatric mental health care; these include cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), strengths-based treatment planning and grief therapy in tandem with CBT for older adults. In addition, care is coordinated with the client’s primary care physician and social service providers from the aging network. Family members and caregivers are encouraged to participate in the services.
Monitoring
Clients are screened via three age-appropriate instruments that measure for sense of autonomy, physical health, and mental health. Screenings are repeated at six and twelve sessions of treatment to monitor client outcomes. After the first two years of operation, over 200 clients have received treatment and demonstrated significant improvements on all scales.
