Sunday, November 26, 2000

Elderly have needs all year long

A while back an elderly woman left a message on my voice mail. I'll never forget it because what she said was truly heartbreaking.
   She said her children were grown and gone, busy raising their own families out-of-state. Although she wasn't homebound, she wasn't as mobile as she used to be and every now and then when she got really lonely, she'd call a cab.
   From behind a cab window, she'd see children playing in the park, moms and dads scurrying to the grocery store, families dining at restaurants - a glimpse, she said, that reconnected her to a world beyond her four walls.
   Such heartrending cases, however, are not unusual, say those who run local programs for the elderly.

To help For information about services for the elderly, call Senior Community Services at 880-3150.

   "We have some clients who have been on our home delivery meal program for more than 10 years," said Elsa Muñoz, superintendent of Senior Community Services. "They have no family and about the only contact they have is with our (Meals on Wheels) driver.
   Greater needs
   "If it weren't for our meal and the help from their neighbors on the weekend, they wouldn't eat a well-balanced meal every day."
   As the aging population continues to climb, "these needs will get greater and more dramatic," said Larry Imhoff, coordinator of the Senior Companion Program that pairs senior volunteers with disabled and homebound elderly.
   Imhoff has 66 volunteers and 86 clients "and a book of people's names who need nothing but help."
   They include the terminally ill. And those who need help with cooking, running errands or other in-home care. And there are others who merely need a little companionship.
   But with an annual budget of $283,000 not everyone who needs the help gets it.
   Recent statistics show those age 85 and older are among the fastest-growing segment of the senior population.
   More than a meal
   While at one time a vital lifeline may have been the adult son or daughter living down the street, today it is the garbage man, letter carrier, meter reader or newspaper carrier, said Nancy Gresham, of the Elder Law and Public Health Division with Attorney General John Cornyn's Office.
   "They're among the first to notice when something's not right and call the appropriate authority," Gresham said. "But the key words for all of us who are way too busy in our own little world is to step outside the box and 'get involved.' "
   That "getting involved," Muñoz added, shouldn't be confined to Thanksgiving or Christmas.
   If the community truly wants to reach out, be willing to offer more than a plate of hot turkey and ham with all the trimmings during the holidays, she said.
   Reach out to the forgotten and lonely every day of the year with something that doesn't cost any money - a little bit of time and some old-fashioned kindness.