UCDD and the Area Agency on Aging and Disability will use Tuesday’s Senior and Caregiver Expo to connect local families with regional support services.
The event provides a platform for a wide selection of providers to share resources with seniors. Executive Director Mark Farley said the gathering is designed to be an entertaining environment for vendors and participants to interact.
“It’s always hard for seniors sometimes to accept that they may need help, and the children want to work with them,” Farley said. “So if they can come to the Caregiver Expo, walk around, talk to the vendors, see what all’s available, hopefully it tears down those fears that they may have.”
Farley said the region is experiencing an increase in the number of people providing care for parents or relatives as the local population ages. Many of these caregivers live out of town and require a centralized location to research options.
“The various providers, they work well with one another because we realize the need is so great in our region and there’s never enough people, there’s never enough money to serve everybody that needs to be taken care of,” Farley said. “So I think anybody coming to our event next week are going to be able to access just about anything they could possibly need.”
Public transportation to the expo is available through senior citizen centers located in the various counties surrounding Cookeville.
“We want the seniors of the Upper Cumberland to be engaged and to get out of their homes and be a part of the community and remain a part of the community,” Farley said. “Our seniors are more active, they’re more engaged, they’re more technologically advanced, and one of the major keys that makes a senior have a better quality of life is that interaction, those connections, the relationships.”
The event features 70 individual vendors covering the full spectrum of needs for the latter stages of life. The gathering also includes line dancing and a complimentary lunch to foster social connections among attendees.
The event takes place Tuesday from 10am to 1pm.