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| Community Budget Issue Requests - Tracking Id #884 |
| Seniors Helping Seniors |
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| Requester: |
Neil Newstein, Executive Dire |
Organization: |
Alpert Jewish Family & Children's Service |
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| Project Title: |
Seniors Helping Seniors |
Date Submitted |
1/12/2006 5:07:27 PM |
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| Sponsors: |
Aronberg, Atwater |
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| Statewide Interest: |
| This project addresses cost effective programming and strategies to maintain seniors in the least restrictive environments by utilizing volunteers to maintain their dignity and keep them living at home, thereby saving the State Med Waiver dollars.
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| Recipient: |
Alpert Jewish Family & Children's Service |
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Contact: |
Neil Newstein |
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4605 Community Drive |
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Contact Phone: |
(561) 684-1991 |
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West Palm Beach 33417 |
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Contact email: |
Nnewstein@jfcspb.org |
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| Counties: |
Palm Beach |
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| Gov't Entity: |
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Private Organization (Profit/Not for Profit): |
Yes |
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| Project Description: |
| Seniors-Helping-Seniors is a direct, core service provided by active, healthy seniors who assist more frail seniors with concrete units of care/service that includes: grocery shopping, meal preparation, light housekeeping, transportation and escort to medical appointments, assistance with laundry (linens, etc), peer support and socialization. Although there are many Home Health Agencies that can provide such service, elders prefer to be matched with a peer who can provide the same service, who is well-trained, professionally supervised and from a similar or same ethnic and cultural background. Many "aides" from formal Home Health Agencies are often from a vastly different background than those elders in need of care. Based on the successful concept of volunteer AmeriCorps (Legacy Corps), which recruits and trains active 55+ year-olds to function as peers and assist more frail elders with the direct-core, concrete services. The "demographic tidal wave" in southeast Florida means that the current program requires expanding. Wait lists for such a concrete service exist and A "Neighbor-Helping-Neighbor" approach means that "indigenous" retired volunteers, who are carefully screened, provide a direct service under the close supervision of professionals. They assist more frail elders to retain their independence and prevent inappropriate placement in more costly programs such as Med Waiver or Skilled Nursing Care. Unlike the existing Senior Companion program, retirees are recruited from "all walks of life", regardless of income, thus allowing more flexibility in the recruitment process and offers the ability to provide transportation as part of the program. This approach to the provision of care through direct in-home services by seniors who help seniors also make the elder in need of assistance less resistant to help, thereby enhancing their independence earlier, rather than later when more costly interventions are required. There are approximately 300,000 seniors in Palm Beach County many of whom experience problems with their functional capacity which impacts their ability to drive, thereby needing assistance with transportation to do the most basic activities of living: grocery shopping, medication pick-up, getting to medical appointments and socialization. Others have even more basic needs, such as meal preparation and assistance with laundry - this direct service program meets provides assistance to seniors in need. |
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| Is this a project related to a federal or state declared disaster? |
No |
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| Measurable Outcome Anticipated: |
| Alpert Jewish Family & Children's Service (AJFCS) is a nationally accredited organization and has a fully-functioning Continuous Quality Improvement Program. AJFCS has the capacity to measure the elders functional capacity over time, which is the primary outcome of a Senior-Helping-Senior program - to ensure that elder individuals are not inappropriately "placed" in more costly settings, such as skilled nursing facilities or assisted living care(Med Waiver) because they are no longer able to maintain their independence. With the funding from this proposal, an additional 300 households (elders) will receive concrete, direct, core services with over 5,000 units of care will be provided with this funding. |
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| Amount requested from the State for this project this year: |
$89,000 |
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| Total cost of the project: |
$352,601 |
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| Request has been made to fund: |
Operations |
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| What type of match exists for this project? |
Private, Federal |
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Cash Amount |
$295,601 |
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In-kind Amount |
$57,000 |
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| Was this project previously funded by the state? |
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No |
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| Is future-year funding likely to be requested? |
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Yes |
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Amount: |
$89,000 |
To Fund: |
Operations |
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| Was this project included in an Agency's Budget Request? |
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No |
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| Was this project included in the Governor's Recommended Budget? |
No |
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| Is there a documented need for this project? |
Yes |
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Documentation: |
AARP Publication (2003) and US Census |
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| Was this project request heard before a publicly noticed meeting of a body of elected officials (municipal, county, or state)? |
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Yes |
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Hearing Body: |
Palm Beach County Legislative Delegation |
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Hearing Meeting Date: |
01/18/2006 |
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| Is this a water project as described in Section 403.885, Laws of Florida? |
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No |
