Eastern Area Agency on Aging: Editorial Page

Assisted Living Facing Cuts

The Key Issue of Assisted Living A “Special” MaineCare program was put in place to cover the residents of the seven affordable, subsidized Assisted Living facilities in Maine. The services covered under THIS MaineCare plan include:

• Meals
• Medication administration
• 24 hour /7 day a week staffing
• Personal care
• Light Housekeeping
• Laundry service

MaineCare paid for these services. AS of July 1, 2009, MaineCare will no longer pay for these essential services. Because these essential services will no longer be allowable under MaineCare, the state will assess these residents to see what other services they can have instead. Here is the issue at hand for the residents. Some will qualify for traditional MaineCare: Traditional MaineCare DOES NOT cover:

Meals

Medication administration

24/7 staffing

Light housekeeping

Laundry service

Some WILL NOT qualify for traditional MaineCare. What happens to them? Question: Where and how will the elderly and frail residents receive the above services that they require? A proposed State solution is Home-Based Care. This means a worker coming in a few hours a week:

• NO Medication administration – how will seniors get their pills when they can’t
• manage themselves?
• NO Meals – how will the senior eat when they can’t cook and have limited
• kitchens?
• NO 24/7 assistance – who will answer the bell at 2:00 a.m. when a senior needs help in the bathroom or has an emergency? Who will give medications at 2:00 a.m. as required by some?

These Assisted Living project averages about $56 a day per resident? How much do Home-Based Care and Nursing Home options cost taxpayers?

Homesharing in Maine

Eastern Area Agency on Aging has a fledgling program that we are trying to get off the ground.  Believe it or not, this program exists around the world and is a critical component of long term care options for older people.  We feel strongly here at EAAA that there is potential in Maine for this model. 

Right now we have a folder full of applications from people wanting to find others with whom to share their homes, but only three applications from people who want to move somewhere!  

This program is not limited to just older people.  If you are a student and could exchange some homecare services for room and board, we may have a match for you.  If you are an older person who can no longer shovel your walk or take care of your home, we have a potential match for you as well.

How does it work? Eastern Area Agency on Aging has the applications at our main office.  Just give us a call - 1-800-432-7812 and ask to speak to one of our resource and referral staff.  They will mail you an application. You must answer some basic questions and be willing to have a background check.  If you are going to help drive someone, you must also be willing to have a driver's record check.  The application is quite simple; are you a smoker, do you have pets, etc. Once we receive your application, we will try to find a match for your situation and then let you know. You will need to call that person and work out the rent and other details.  If you find someone with whom you can work out an arrangement, we will do background checks on both parties to provide a level of security.

We also try to run the occasional advertisement in the Weekly of the Bangor Daily News.  We list the options that currently exist under the roommate section in the classified.

If you want to know more or if you want to apply, give us a call.  We would like to see this program expand and truly help people who want to stay in their community.

Coats for Seniors

This past weekend, November 21st through November 23rd, 2008, TRIAD and the Maine Association of Area Agencies on Aging in partnership with LL Bean collected coats at the LL Bean Flagship store in Freeport, Maine.  We had heard that there were adults and seniors who do not have enough money to purchase a coat this winterand we wanted to solve that problem. Keeping the success of Coats for Kids in mind, we proposed the Coats for Seniors idea to the LL Bean company.  They jumped on the bandwagon and ultimately, we collected 1,483 coats to be distributed statewide.  Here at Eastern Area Agency on Aging, we will have about 300 coats to distribute.  We are using our meal sites, community service staff, assisted living sites and we are letting our DASH network know of their availability.  These coats are very nice and we have all sizes, colors and styles available.  If you need a coat, come over to our main office or give us a call.  The coats are free and we aren't going to ask you any questions about your income or needs.  Just come in and get a coat!