Seniors director wants new agency
By Natasha Lee, Staff Writer
Stamford Advocate - 12/17/07                  printer friendly version (pdf)

STAMFORD - For some seniors, aging can mean the loss of physical ability, but not their independence.

Daily tasks such as driving, laundry, remembering to take medications, cooking and cleaning become difficult and, sometimes, dangerous.

Most seniors who need help in these ways are not ready to leave their homes for a nursing home or assisted living facility. They also do not want to depend on their adult children to care for them.

Marie Johnson, executive director of Senior Services of Stamford, said she wants to improve access to at-home services for seniors by creating an agency to offer personalized services to seniors for an annual fee.

Johnson said Stamford lacks adequate services for seniors compared to its neighbors. The city's adult day care centers closed several years ago, and the closest geriatric assessment facility is in Greenwich, Johnson said.

"Just because we're a city, doesn't mean we can't have a village mentality of helping people out," she said.

The agency would provide health services, personal care, and social activities for seniors and link them to a network of referrals and discounts for other services, from plumbing repairs to personal trainers and computer instructors.

"Everything you find in a retirement community, you'd find those services at home. I want them to be able to tap into resources available around them," she said.

At a legislative meeting two weeks ago, Johnson reached out to senior advocates and organizations for support and interest.

"It's got to be entrepreneurial, all-encompassing, concierge service. It makes a lot of sense to work in partnership and tandem," she said.

Senior Services of Stamford is non-profit referral service that also provides financial assistance and counseling to seniors. Johnson said the new agency would expand services to reach a wider group of the city's seniors.

"It's a natural outgrowth of what we do now," she said.

Such programs, known as Aging in Place, are gaining popularity nationwide, particularly as aging baby boomer resist spending their remaining years in a nursing home or institution.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2006 statistics, people ages 65 and older make up nearly 14 percent of the state's 3.5 million population. Connecticut is ranked seventh in the country for percent of population 85 and older at 2.2 percent.

"They started seeing what their future would look like and they said, 'No way, we're not going into a nursing home," Johnson said.

A program started by seniors living in Beacon Hill in Boston, Mass., has become a model embraced by Greenwich, New Canaan, Wilton and Westport.

Beacon Hill members pay annual dues - $550 for an individual, $780 for a couple - that covers weekly grocery store trips, exercise classes, transportation and lectures on topics related to aging. Paid services, like home repairs or home health aides, are offered at rate discounted between 10 to 50 percent.

While all cities and towns offer senior services - access to food delivery, rides to doctor appointments and companionship programs - a senior sometimes has to go through several agencies to meet all their needs.

"I think right now our system is a little fragmented," said Marie Allen, executive director of the Southwestern Connecticut Agency on Aging.

"We need one source that looks at the whole person. We need to look at not just the fact that Meals-on-Wheels delivers meals to them, what about when they can't remember to take their medications," she said.

Trust is always an issue, said Melba Neville, municipal agent for the aging in New Canaan.

A senior may fear being swindled by a contractor hired to install grab bars in a bathroom, so he or she will go without.

"People, as they get older, are more cautious of who they have working for them," Neville said.

A group of New Canaan seniors started Staying Put, based on the Beacon Hill model, that will start next year. The program will also provide referrals to plumbers, snow plowers and electricians recommended by other seniors, Neville said.

Getting seniors to pay for an agency service will be tough, Johnson and Allen said.

Nursing home and other health care institutions are more expensive than one-on-one care, Allen said. Medicaid only covers skilled nursing services such as bathing or administering medical treatment. Services have to be affordable and have low-income options, Allen said.

"You have seniors who live on less than $8,000 a year and in that same age bracket, seniors with $8 million a year. If you can't feed yourself, it doesn't matter how much money you have," she said.

Still, Johnson's idea is gaining traction.  Wilton resident Juliana Murphy, who started a concierge service for Fairfield County seniors in October, said she's interested in partnering with the agency. Murphy offers hourly service and packages for seniors in everything including housekeeping and helping seniors, no longer able to utilize at-home services, transition into assisted living homes.

"This is a market that needs to be addressed immediately," she said. "What I would like to do is carry these people at home throughout the entire life process and carry them with dignity."

Daniel Kraus, director of DanielCare, a home care agency that services Stamford, said he doesn't see a new agency as competition, but instead as helping expand services to seniors.

"It's about giving, which is the name of the game," he said. "The majority of people would be very happy to cooperate, because it's name recognition and it's business."

Allen said agencies should not join a network with the intent of expanding their businesses, but to help those in need.

"You have to come into this saying 'I may not get all the clients, but I'm going do what I can to make my service flexible and available to a great number of people,' " she said.