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Donated
air conditioners bring relief to the elderly
On
Monday night, it was so sweltering that Clara Brown -- 81, blind and bent
over from painfully disfiguring arthritis -- pulled herself out of bed and
went into her living room. There,
just feet away from where her ancient air conditioner had broken down, she
sat soaked in sweat in front of a fan, forcing herself to stay awake. "I
was afraid," Brown said, "that I was going to die in my
sleep." On
Wednesday morning, her fear seemed as sincere as her gratitude as two
volunteers for the Bishop Sullivan Center's Project ElderCool turned on a
new and free 5,200 BTU air conditioner they had installed minutes earlier
in her window. "Thank
you," said Brown who, as cool air swept into the room, can consider
herself lucky. Lucky,
because since 1980 when 176 area residents died under terrible
temperatures, a system of city and social service agencies is doing more
to help safeguard the lives of people such as Brown. The poor. Frail.
Elderly. Vulnerable to the blazing heat. In
fact, if there is any problem with the system, experts said, it's that too
few people are taking advantage of available help for a variety of
reasons: Pride,
stubbornness, fear. Ignorance that help exists. Confusion over how to
access what's available. Even physiology. As people age, their internal
thermostats simply don't operate as well. Older people sometimes don't
seek help because they don't know they're overheating until it is too
late. "I've
walked into a room where it was 105 degrees and a man was wearing a
sweater," said Don Pickard, who coordinates the Heat Task Force for
the Kansas City Department of Health. In
the Kansas City area, a huge percentage of households -- 84 percent --
have central air conditioning, helping ensure the health of those
residents. Still, it's unknown how thousands go without. Over
the next few days, the Kansas City area's high temperatures are expected
to continue topping 100 degrees or remain in the 90s. Nonetheless,
the Salvation Army, which stockpiles fans and supplies them to about 30
area social service agencies, still has at least 100 unused fans in a
warehouse. "None
of the agencies are telling us they are running out," said Joyce
Schau, the organization's social services director. Said
Linda Wright, director of the Johnson County Area Agency on Aging, "I
worry about the people we don't know about." What's
more, although area shelter doors are open as a cool respite to the heat,
few are coming in. Authorities say a few people may not know where the
shelters are or have a way to get there. Still others are afraid their
houses will be burglarized while they are gone. They sometimes fear rising
electric bills. Although for some it's more a matter of pride. "I
think the most nagging thing for me is that elderly people can be so
stubborn," said Colleen Raveill, Bishop Sullivan's special projects
manager. "They are so proud. They are not going to ask for help. They
won't call because they don't think they deserve it." The
Bishop Sullivan Center, the Salvation Army, United Services, the American
Red Cross and other agencies all play roles in helping the elderly and
others in scorching heat. On Wednesday, for example, Salvation Army
volunteers began regular calls to people they know may be at risk. Perhaps
the most telling statistic to their effectiveness: the low number of
heat-related deaths. This
summer, the area has had two so far, according to the Bishop Sullivan
Center, which tracks such cases. The previous three years the numbers were
two, 10 and 11, respectively. The
center began its program in 2000 after the 21 heat-related deaths in 1999.
Since then, the organization has worked with other agencies to give out
more than 1,500 free air conditioners to either disabled or low-income
elderly individuals who qualify. Raveill
said some people resist asking for a new air conditioner because they
don't think they can afford the increased electric bill. Because of this,
the organization offers to offset the cost by paying $50 on their clients'
bills. On
Wednesday, Ruthie Mae Turner, 68, repeatedly thanked God and the Bishop
Sullivan Center for giving her a new air conditioner after thieves ripped
her old one from her window on Saturday while she was at church. "God
knows I love you all for bringing me air conditioning!" she exclaimed
to volunteers Matt Barnhart and Andrew LeRoy, law students at the
University of Missouri-Kansas City. Herman
Robinson, 74, -- whose new air conditioner was the third of three the
young men installed Wednesday morning -- expressed the same. "Thank
you," Robinson said, his throat an airy whisper because of throat
cancer. "Try to keep cool," he told them. Today,
which is Barnhart's and LeRoy's longest volunteer day, the two are
expected to install 13 more air conditioners. The center receives no state
or federal aid for its program. All the air conditioners are bought using
donated money. Every
now and then, the men said, they encounter someone who lies about having a
disability and tries to scam the center out of a new air conditioner to
later sell or pawn. But such cases, they said, are rare. Most people, they
said, are extremely appreciative. "We
installed one air conditioner for an old man who had been bedridden since
1985," LeRoy said. The man's sheets, he said, were soaked in sweat. "This
was the first time," LeRoy said, "he ever had air
conditioning." To
be sure, authorities said, although services do exist to help people in
the heat, the two greatest challenges are finding those people or getting
them to seek assistance. Of
the 766,500 households in the 11-county Kansas City area, only 16 percent
are without central air conditioning, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
It is unknown exactly how many households in that 16 percent have no air
conditioning whatsoever, but the number is thought to be at least 27,700. In
a large metro area, it is not much. But it is still significant. The key
to helping, authorities said, is to be watchful, to check on neighbors,
friends and elderly relatives. "Every
day, I wake up and listen to the news and hope and pray that nobody has
succumbed to this," Raveill said. "I hope we are making
relatives and friends and neighbors more aware that we are our brothers'
keepers and have to watch out for each other."
Copyright
© 2002 Global Action on Aging |
