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Show Program For Aged: Model By TOM BUSSELBERG FARMINGTON - Davis County's Council on Aging was one of only two state agencies considered for a model program, said its-Director its-Director Alice Johnson. FOUR FEDERAL officials, including two from Denver and two from Washington, D.C., spent a couple days visiting Davis senior centers and interviewing County Comm. Emest Eberhard and various government agency heads, she said. "They are trying to work out model projects for long-term long-term care," Mrs. Johnson said. "When Congress passed the Older Americans Act it emphasized services for the homebound." And a new federal commissioner has said emphasis will be placed on the frail elderly. AND SINCE the number of elderly is projected to total one in four Americans by the year 2035, some changes may be necessary in caring for them, she continued. "We've been practicing institu tionalizing very quickly but I don't think it will ever be practical to continue. It's been easy, if people didn't have the money, to have the government pick it up and there hasn't been much money for community services ser-vices (to provide care)." i She hastened to add that nursing homes are often "very necessary facilities" and often provide the only means of care for many senior citizens.- But at the same time, she added that families can be helped in keeping many out of nursing homes. "WE DON'T want the elderly el-derly to be institutionalized for social reasons or prematurely prema-turely if there is any way that other services can handle it," she said. The visitors paid special attention to the Davis homebound services that include outreach, home meals and home care visits. "They also looked at the centers and observed that we had more frail elderly in our centers. Most of them are bus passengers pas-sengers and they are mostly extremely frail. Some are very old and that (center) is probably the only place they go to have lunch and watch the people," Mrs. Johnson said. "SOME OF them just wait for Monday (during the weekend). A lot of them -started on the homebound !-program !-program and were contacted by outreach." Cooperation with other agencies is vital in a successful success-ful program, she continued. "I think the agencies must cooperate or we couldn't doit. There's no way one agency can do it all. We have to work . very closely with other agencies," agen-cies," she said, for such ser- vices as health care, housing, : ' mental health and information informa-tion and referral. , "(THE COUNCIL on) Aging Ag-ing can't be everything to everyone," Mrs. Johnson added. ad-ded. "There have to be some changes in attitudes to get some of the money available for social services. There's just too great a burden for the family, church or even government." Federal officials will probably be contacting the Council on Aging for further details in setting up a similar program, she said. |
