by Marj Stuart
Chair, Amador County Commission on Aging
In my four years of volunteering as a commissioner on the Amador County Commission on Aging, I’ve learned a lot about the problems of aging in a rural and relatively remote area. In 2008 the Commission launched a major study of isolated seniors and their unmet needs with the purpose of helping them remain in their own homes. It was triggered by one commissioner’s 9-1-1 call to get help for an elderly friend who lived alone.
Not surprisingly, isolated seniors often need help in obtaining adequate medical and mental health care. Two other major problem areas – transportation for appointments, shopping, and community involvement, and adequate housing – have an obvious impact on healthcare as well.
To get information from the horse’s mouth without invading anyone’s privacy, we invited individuals and groups who have direct contact with isolated seniors to attend a meeting. Although it was not our original purpose, our research efforts have synthesized a local coalition that includes the county Sheriff’s Office, county social service agencies, various kinds of private home care agencies, churches with outreach and social service support programs, and local public transit.
As a result of our ongoing discussions on unmet needs, the Commission on Aging and the Sheriff’s Department jointly sponsored a public workshop to consider changes to and publicize the appropriate use of the 9-1-1 emergency system; the Sheriff’s Department launched a hidden-key program to facilitate access to a home in an emergency; the local transit system rearranged its schedule to include a stop and return from the county food bank that would accommodate people picking up perishable food; and we are collaborating with another public agency to provide a workshop on money and credit card debt management.
We also continue to come up with specific individual solutions – for example, a diabetic senior sleeping in his car in the parking lot of the Senior Center because he had run out of other options – that have been solved by input from other members of the coalition. A growing awareness of what already exists and how to use it helps define the holes we need to work on together to maintain a safety net for the entire community.
Networking and looking at the big picture are keys to providing essential medical and other living services in this day and age of shrinking federal and state funds. They also help build community, an essential piece of the puzzle that allows everyone to thrive.
Marj Stuart can be reached at absoup@volcano.net
Article posted on 10/22/08
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