Eastside Friends of Seniors' Blog | Eastside Friends of Seniors

Which Transportation Service Would You Want?

By Laura Beth · Posted 1 week, 1 day ago · Comments (0)

Monday, June 10th, 2013

Transportation is one of the services that we offer to our clients that is in high demand. Our volunteers provide door-through-the-door service; a personal escort to the senior’s destination.

One transportation alternative for our clients is Metro Transit’s Access program. Access is a curb-to-curb service for the disabled. If we think that a client is eligible for Access, we recommend they sign up for the service. Access works very well for some of our clients, but not as well for others. One of the biggest problems is that Access requires a large time window. It may be hours before a client is picked up; and, it may take hours for their trip to be completed. When clients are frail, their ability to withstand the long waiting periods may be difficult.

To be eligible for the program, clients must go to Harborview Hospital and be evaluated – and Access will provide the ride. One of our clients signed up. As is typical of the program, the pick-up time was an hour later than what they told her – and then they did another pick-up and drop-off along the way. By the time they arrived at Harborview, she wasn’t feeling that well at all.

Metro staff began the evaluation. As a part of the eligibility test, she had to walk one block on her own. She collapsed halfway through.

The upside of this incident is that she passed the test – she is now eligible for Access! But the downside is this – that an elderly woman had to keel over on the street before she could use the public transportation system that is specifically for people like her.

What if our transportation program disappeared, and if all our clients used Access instead of our volunteer transportation program? According to Metro, the cost of the Access service averages $38 per trip. Based on that figure, and the number of trips our volunteers drove last year, we have saved Metro Transit – and the taxpayers – over $130,000. Remember, we receive no federal, state, or county funding. We depend on contributions from our generous supporters – like you – to keep our services going.

And while many Access drivers are kindly and personable – which type of service would you want, as a frail elder? A long wait and then a curb-to-curb bus ride? Or an efficient door-through-the-door service from your volunteer friend?

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Categories : Blog

Tags : driving to the doctor, helping seniors, transportation, transportation for seniors

Social Isolation Has More Consequences

By Laura Beth · Posted 2 weeks, 6 days ago · Comments (0)

Wednesday, May 29th, 2013

Social isolation is a critical problem for home bound elders. In the previous blog post we mentioned that loneliness has direct costs to our elders’ health, and consequently for our health care system.

But there is another cost of social isolation in our health care system that is more hidden.

Family practice physicians and gerontologists know that seniors are often “treated” and their primary symptom is the need for human contact. A senior who visits medical providers may receive attention that is desperately craved. The health care system may be paying for unnecessary visits – what the elderly person really needs is a friend, not a doctor. For different reasons, family members may pay attention to their elderly relatives only when they perceive the person is sick, and disengage when it appears the individual is physically healthy.

At the same time, Americans only get an average of 18 minutes with their primary care physician during each visit. Dr. Yeates Conwell, a professor at the University of Rochester, researches suicide among the elderly. Getting to the emotional state, underlying sadness and hopelessness, is often very difficult for the primary care doctor, Conwell says, especially when they are caring for someone with numerous medical conditions and medications. Meanwhile, patients from an older generation are more likely to talk to their physician about their physical aches and pains, and not their psychological or emotional state. Primary care doctors play a critical role in helping prevent suicide among the elderly because older people, especially older men, are reluctant to seek out and accept mental health services. But they are often seen by family doctors and nurses within days or weeks prior to killing themselves, Conwell says.

Our health care system needs to figure out how to get this right: to ensure that seniors get the right kind of help – medical, social, and psychological. We believe that our volunteers, and volunteer caregivers across the country are part of the solution, providing a friendly face and a welcoming hand to isolated elders in need.

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Categories : Blog

Tags : Elderly, helping seniors, Seniors

Loneliness Tied to Health Risks

By Laura Beth · Posted 1 month ago · Comments (0)

Thursday, May 16th, 2013

Have you ever had a time in your life when you’ve been lonely? Well, 10% of people over 65 years old are “chronically lonely”. And the health effects are profound. Health risks associated with social isolation is equivalent to smoking a pack of cigarettes each day. Loneliness has significant links to a range of chronic conditions; including hypertension, depression, and increases the risk of developing Alzheimer’s by 50%. According to a study that appears in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry (http://jnnp.bmj.com/), those who suffer from loneliness also have a 64% greater risk of dementia.

With a senior population 30% higher than the United States, Great Britain has in recent years undertaken numerous health initiatives to address loneliness among elders in particular. Their government has funded an effort to research and address loneliness, and we in the United States can learn from them. As defined by The Campaign to End Loneliness, elderly loneliness and isolation is an issue because:

Loneliness and isolation worsens mortality and morbidity (morbidity is the percentage of people in a population who get sick from a particular disease)
Reducing loneliness and isolation will help to address health inequalities
Demographic change could worsen the problem
It means a poorer quality of life for older people
Addressing it will improve the integration of services and result in stronger partnerships
Addressing it will result in stronger communities in which older people play a greater role
Effective prevention is relatively low cost
It results in increased use of expensive health and social care services

Being alone much of the time is a recipe for depression and other chronic health conditions. Programs like ours help give isolated seniors greater community connections, allowing them to live happier and healthier lives. For more information and tools to combat loneliness, please see the Campaign to End Loneliness Tool Kit at http://campaigntoendloneliness.org/toolkit/.

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Categories : Blog

Tags : Elderly