Aug. 14, 2009 | Aug. 14, 2009 | The Oaklawn Senior Health Care Center recently became Arkansas’ eighth Center on Aging and part of the Arkansas Aging Initiative of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS).

A grand opening ceremony was held for the Hot Springs facility on July 20 and was attended by UAMS Chancellor I. Dodd Wilson, M.D., Jeanne Wei, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging and Claudia Beverly, Ph.D, R.N., F.A.A.N., director of the Arkansas Aging Initiative (AAI).

The opening was made possible by the Charles Cella family, which created the Oaklawn Foundation for the Future of Hot Springs with a $1 million gift. The Hot Springs Senior Health Care Center received $500,000 of the $1 million gift, and a small percentage of gaming proceeds at Oaklawn Park go to the foundation monthly to support the Oaklawn Senior Health Care Center.

Combined, the eight Centers on Aging put quality geriatric health care and education programs within about an hour’s drive of 90 percent of Arkansans. Beverly said the Hot Springs Senior Health Care Center is an important addition because it’s in Garland County and its proximity to the Hot Springs Village retirement community.

“There are a lot of older adults in Garland County,” Beverly said. “We are delighted to be there.”
During the grand opening ceremony, Wilson noted that Garland County ranks among the top five counties in Arkansas in the percentage of older adults.

“This center’s opening is a testament to the fact that Hot Springs cares about its seniors,” Wei said. The Hot Springs center is directed by Robert Kleinhenz, M.D., and Kathy Packard is director of education.

Its education programs are in temporary space at St. Joseph’s Mercy Health System. The clinical components will be phased in over the next two years in a separate facility. Like the other seven centers, the Hot Springs clinical team will include an interdisciplinary geriatric health care team, with a geriatrician, a geriatric nurse practitioner and a social worker. Arkansas is the only state to offer such an extensive health care network for older adults.

The other seven Centers on Aging are supported by a portion of the state’s share of the multi-state Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement.

Arkansas Aging Initiative (AAI) is a program of UAMS’ Institute on Aging. The AAI was created in 2001 and has been funded annually with $1.5 million to $2 million from the tobacco settlement. The tobacco money also has been used to leverage additional public and private support totaling more than $6 million.

UAMS Senior Health Services