Living Well

The mission of the Living Well program is to improve the health of rural communities through collaborative innovation, by implementing and facilitating evidence-based programming and best practices.

Current Goals & Objectives:

• Facilitating the National Diabetes Prevention Program
• Facilitating Bingocize^tm for fall prevention
• Facilitating the American Lung Association’s Freedom from Smoking^tm tobacco cessation program
• Organizing Hospital-based Farmer’s Market
• Coordinating Worksite Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs
• Collaborating to provide Mental Health First Aid trainings
• Funding Community-based Nutrition Classes offered by Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE)
• Increasing access to evidence-based programming for older adults by providing Schoharie County Council of Senior Citizens, Inc. and Otsego County Council of Senior Citizens Inc. with scholarships
• Connecting Bassett Healthcare Network with community-based organizations
• Increasing Health Literacy among youth through the development of Social Norms Based Messaging Campaign

Partner Organizations Supported by Living Well:

• Cornell Cooperative Extension Schoharie and Otsego Counties
• Otsego County Council of Senior Citizens
• Schoharie County Council of Senior Citizens

Additional Partners:

• Bassett Healthcare Network
• Madison County Rural Health Council
• Herkimer County Healthnet
• Chenango Health Network
• Offices for the Aging in the Bassett Service Region: Chenango, Delaware, Herkimer, Otsego, Madison, Montgomery, and Schoharie Counties, and New York State
• Departments of Health in the Bassett Service Region: Chenango, Delaware, Herkimer, Otsego, Madison, Montgomery, and Schoharie Counties, and New York State
• Health and Human Service Associations in Otsego and Schoharie Counties

Living Well Advisory Board Members:

• Lynae Wyckoff, Program Manager
• Michelle Leveski, Nutrition Educator, Cornell Cooperative Extension
• Liz Callahan, Director, Cornell Cooperative Extension
• Heidi Bond, Director of Public Health and Patient Services, Otsego County Health Department
• Tamie Reed, Director, Otsego County Office for the Aging
• Nicole Blanchard, Director, Schoharie County Health Department
• Carole Lachance, Director, Connections at Clark Sports Center
• Kimberly Witkowski, Executive Director, The Gathering Place 50+ Community Center Cobleskill and Oneonta
• Meg Parsons, Director, Schoharie County Office for the Aging
• Pam Burch, Research Assistant, Living Well

The Living Well program has also examined various aspects of chronic disease management and prevention in our rural population:

• JMIR Formative Research – Enrollment and Completion Characteristics for Novel Remote Delivery Modes of the Self-management Programs During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Exploratory Analysis
• Evaluation of a Peer Led Chronic Pain Self-Management Program in a Rural Population (sagepub.com)
• Loneliness Among Rural Self-Management Education Program Enrollees During the COVID-19 Pandemic (sagepub.com)
• Implementation of Evidence-Based Disease Self-Management Programs in a Rural Region: Leveraging and Linking Community and Health Care System Assets – Kristin Pullyblank, Wendy Brunner, Lynae Wyckoff, Nicole Krupa, Melissa Scribani, David Strogatz, 2022 (sagepub.com)
• Evaluating the Implementation of the Diabetes Self-Management Program in a Rural Population | Diabetes Spectrum | American Diabetes Association (diabetesjournals.org)

Additional studies that were developed and used the Living Well program include:

• Living Well with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and Asthma
  Prescribing Patterns for Long-Acting Inhaled Bronchodilators Among Rural Adults With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease | Brunner | Journal of Clinical Medicine Research (jocmr.org)
• Patient Perspectives on Changing Behavior to Improve Diabetes Self-Management
  Wrangling Diabetes: Illuminating the Latent Processes That Impact Diabetes Self-Management Behaviors – Kristin Pullyblank, Amanda Fink, 2023 (sagepub.com)-The Impact of the National Diabetes Prevention Program in Two Rural Communities
• Understanding national diabetes prevention program participant perspectives on factors affecting behavior change (confex.com)