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UAMS Opens Center on Aging at Mountain Home

2 min read

The Arkansas Aging Initiative, a program of the Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, on Wednesday opened a Center on Aging at the Baxter Regional Medical Center in Mountain Home.

"Baxter County is the perfect place to open the ninth Center on Aging because 27 percent of the population in this north central Arkansas county is age 65 or older," Claudia J. Beverly, Ph.D., R.N., said at a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Beverly, who directs the Arkansas Aging Initiative, is a professor in the UAMS College of Nursing, College of Medicine and the Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health.

The Baxter Center on Aging is the center’s ninth in the state.

"With the addition of the Fairlamb Senior Health Clinic, the clinical component of the center, 98 percent of senior adults in Arkansas have access to quality health  care within a 60-mile drive from their homes," Beverly said. "No other state in the country has a similar network of health care and educational services for seniors."

The AAI aims to improve the health of older Arkansans through interdisciplinary clinical care and innovative education programs, and to influence health policy at the state and national levels with an emphasis on the care of rural older adults.

Seven of the regional centers receive funding from a portion of Arkansas’ share of the Master Tobacco Settlement: El Dorado, Jonesboro, Pine Bluff, Springdale, Fort Smith, West Memphis and Texarkana.

The Cella family of St. Louis, who owns Oaklawn Gaming and Racing in Hot Springs, contributed initial funds to open the eighth center, the Oaklawn Center on Aging, and pledged ongoing support through the Oaklawn Foundation.

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