|
|
|
|
||
|
||
|
|
||
| SEARCH | SUBSCRIBE | ||
|
 |
Program
Links Elderly Immigrants to Aid By Samantha Gross NEW YORK (AP)--When Hau Tang
Tom's English-speaking husband died in 1993, she was left without anyone
to translate her mail. Now, at 71, the retired chef
and factory seamstress brings her letters to case managers with a social
service program right in her public housing development. They help her
identify and handle any mail that could affect her Medicare and Social
Security benefits. And, since she never learned to read and write in her
native Cantonese, they help her send letters to her family in China. Many of the seniors in the
Vladeck Houses complex are illiterate in their own language and speak no
English. ``They're inundated with
mail,'' said Evie Hurtado, a supervisor for the Naturally Occurring
Retirement Communities program. ``They don't know what to do with it, so
they throw it away. Then they get their funds cut.'' Mail they can't read and checks
that mysteriously don't arrive are just a few of the daily hurdles for the
Vladeck seniors. Most speak only Spanish or Cantonese, and as their
communication problems combine with the difficulties of aging, advocates
say they need a link to connect them with services and aid. NORC programs serve
neighborhoods or areas with high concentrations of seniors living
independently. Like the program at Vladeck Houses, they were formed to
expand on the social and daycare activities offered by traditional senior
centers. Staffed by social workers,
these programs help seniors stay out of nursing homes by connecting them
to home aides, health care, mental wellness care and social activities, as
well as government-funded benefits and aid. But when staffers at Vladeck
first posted signs in several languages to advertise their services to the
over 800 seniors who live there, the response was disappointing. Many seniors could not read the
signs. Others, says chief administrator Janet Fischer, refused to accept
any help--afraid to trust the case managers or, often, embarrassed to
admit their difficulties. So the staff developed
solutions tailored to their particular community. Some began advertising
the program door-to-door. Others, finding many seniors weren't leaving
their apartments, sought to draw them into group activities. There was one group of ``macho
guys,'' Fischer said, who ``wouldn't come in for anything.'' So a case manager asked Cruz
Torres, a retired taxi driver from Puerto Rico, if he would be willing to
start a dominoes game in the senior lunchroom. Three years later, Torres, who
is 67, says he has not missed a single day of the six-day-a-week game.
``We're just killing time,'' Torres said of the 10 to 16 men who play for
over four hours each day. ``We don't have no other place to go. We might
as well come here.'' But Fischer credits the game
with improving the nutrition of the men, since they often come first for
lunch, which on a recent day included roast beef, mashed potatoes,
carrots, peas, pineapple juice and grapefruit, all for $1. And Torres says
it was only after the game began that he started going to the office for
help. ``As people age, many lose the
social connections they've had,'' said Anita Altman, deputy managing
director for resource development with the UJA-Federation of New York, a
Jewish philanthropic organization that originally spearheaded the drive to
gain public funding for NORC programs. ``These programs have helped create
the reweaving of the social fabric in a community. ... They've helped
enable seniors to remain living in their own homes.'' And that is where the economic
sense of the programs lies, say some advocates, who argue that keeping
people out of nursing homes translates into a significant savings for
Medicaid. Unlike Medicare, which only partially covers medical costs for
those over 65, Medicaid covers most medical costs for low-income people. Not everyone is convinced the
program saves money. ``If we're doing our jobs right
as social workers, we're getting people connected to services earlier,''
and services such as home aide care cost Medicaid money, said Freda
Vladeck, project director of the United Hospital Fund's Aging in Place
Initiative. Vladeck Houses is named after her husband's grandfather, who
helped establish federally funded public housing. Alene Hokenstad, another
project director for the UHF, said people seeking a purely economic
analysis are asking the wrong questions. ``The real argument is how do you
provide good care to people with complex needs, and how do you respect
people's choices,'' she said. But economic concerns are
always present when programs depend on public funding. The Vladeck NORC program
expected to lose 77 percent of its $214,000 annual budget in city and
state cuts this year. Some seniors were resigned to
the news. ``You have to humble yourself to your situation,'' Marcela
Fernandez, 72, said through a translator. Fernandez doesn't attend the
birthday parties or outings or computer classes her program offers.
Instead, she relies on the staff for help with the essentials. When her supplemental security
income and her Medicaid coverage were cut in a recent mix-up, program
workers helped her take steps to restore the funds and get a temporary
supply of her diabetes medication. As Hurtado, one of the
program's social workers, was leaving after a recent home visit, Fernandez
asked her to translate one last word. ``It says 'corn,''' Hurtado
said in Spanish, reading off a can of government-surplus food Fernandez
had been given by a charity. If the program were to lose its
funding and close, ``God would find a way to send me someone to help me,''
Fernandez said. ``I don't know how to advocate for myself.'' Others have resolved not to
leave the matter to any higher powers. Tom, the seamstress, approached
strangers on the street and at bus stops with an English-language petition
to stop the cuts, giving explanations in Cantonese. A slight woman whose
feet don't quite reach the floor when she's seated, Tom had never before
taken on a political cause. She enlisted members of her Buddhist temple in
the effort, and together they gathered over 200 signatures. Other seniors joined in,
attending rallies and flooding politicians' offices with calls, often in
Spanish and Chinese. It is quite a change for a community Fischer says is
usually difficult to coax to the polls. Recently, 30 Vladeck seniors
traveled to the state's capital, Albany, many for the first time. They
cheered as New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver told them the state
Legislature had restored the last of this year's funding to New York's
NORC programs. For at least another year, the
staff in the program's three offices--one for Chinese speakers, one for
those who speak Spanish and one for English speakers--will continue to
open their doors. For Alfredo Rios, this means
the dominoes game will go on. But clearly, there is more to it than that. ``It's a therapy for us,'' he says. ``It relieves stress. It relieves anxiety. It gives you something to do instead of being home, crammed up against four walls.'' Copyright
© 2002 Global Action on Aging |
