The Senior Scene

Kate Quebe, Director of Pt. Defiance-Ruston Senior Center, worries about all the seniors who frequent the Center on a regular basis.

Not long ago, a member of their group failed to show up when expected and further checking found that he was in need of immediate medical assistance.
This got Quebe thinking about setting up some sort of a program where people who live alone could check on each other on a regular basis to be sure they are either up and moving in the morning, or at home safe at night.  Quebe had several local options to emulate.

The University Place Police Department has a system that operates Monday through Friday and Dorothy Gannon, volunteer coordinator for the telephone reassurance program, said their program works pretty well.

Gannon said that people who participate in the program fill out a form with Pierce County Aging and Long Term Care and are evaluated for any other needs they may have before being given a slot in the telephone reassurance program.

Gannon likes the program that is run through Pierce County Aging and Long Term Care and explained, “Because clients are interviewed by a social worker they often find they need more help than just a phone call, and that agency has those resources available to them.”

However, the University Place model operates on a five-day a week schedule. Quebe knew she wanted something in place that worked on a seven-day basis.

A commercial option for folks living alone is the Lifeline program.  Mercy’s Lifeline system operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, with a one-time installation fee of $80 and a monthly fee of $42.

As great as this program sounds, the cost can be a factor for folks living on a fixed income.

Quebe thought that her group at Pt. Defiance-Ruston Senior Center could set up their own system which would have many of the options of the other programs but have no cost, work on a daily basis all year round and would appeal to low income seniors.

“We are thinking of doing a very limited phone tree where people in the program would be assigned in groups of three and call each other at a specified time,” said Quebe.

Each group, said Quebe, would decide for themselves which time of day for making the calls would work best.

With these thoughts in mind, Quebe set up an exploratory meeting at the Center.

A small group showed up to discuss how to set up the phone system and each person brought some great ideas to the table.

Priscilla Baker, who is 87 years old, said she lives alone and will be fine as long as “my health doesn’t fail.”

Jim Hansen said he also lived alone and wanted to discuss resources and options.  “I want to stay independent,” he added.

Chuck Dawson said he lived alone and was interested in preventative measures and putting things in place to prevent future obstacles. “If I need help,” he said, “I need it now.”

Louise Batchelor suggested getting a locksmith on board to volunteer some services in case the police had to be called to do a safety check.

Everyone present was willing to volunteer and felt the system they were hoping to set up should operate on a seven-day a week schedule. All they needed was a plan, phones and a willingness to participate.

When Quebe brought up the idea of the three-person phone tree, everyone agreed that smaller groups of volunteers would work best.

A steering committee was formed and the next meeting scheduled.

It won’t be long before the Pt. Defiance-Ruston Senior Center has their own telephone reassurance program in place and will begin checking on each other on a daily basis to be sure everyone stays safe.

“This program sounds simplified,” said Dawson.  “It would work.”

David Droge, Graduation Advisor at Lincoln High School in Tacoma sees a wonderful opportunity for senior citizens and others to give something back to their community and have fun doing it.

Public schools are facing tough times and Lincoln High School, located on the east side of Tacoma, is in a high poverty area.

Droge came upon a wonderful program that links volunteers with students for a one on one tutoring experience that has proven to be extremely beneficial – to both students and the volunteers as well.

Droge said he and a group wanted to develop a community writing center in Tacoma.  “A place where there could be tutoring and writers could come,” modeled after the successful 826 Valencia program started in San Francisco. That program was started by a man named Dave Eggers.

In 2000, Eggers lived in Brooklyn and was busy burning the midnight oil writing a novel. That left many daylight hours open for him to pursue other activities.

Eggers had what he called “a massive group of people I knew, writers, graduate students, journalists, that all had flexible day hours and an interest in English work. Everybody I knew had an interest in the written word,” he said in a 2008-taped speech given at a TED conference (TED is an online global community encompassing people from technology, entertainment and design worlds.)

An idea began to form and when he moved to San Francisco, he rented a building where writers and editors could work. They noticed at 2:30 every afternoon students would wander the streets in front of their publishing business. Eggers thought he could partner these students with the journalists on site in a tutoring format.

The group put their heads together, set up an area for tutoring in the front of their publishing business, and soon students began flooding into the building right after school was out every day.

“There was something psychological happening,” Eggers said. “We had a publishing company in back, and it was all a creative endeavor.  The kids were modeling their behavior from the adults and there was a lot of cross pollination.”

Volunteers worked with the students and got them to finish their homework before they left the center. That left family and fun time for the rest of the evening, and the students felt wonderful about their accomplishments.

“We started with 12 volunteers and now we have 1400,” said Eggers.

With this in mind, Droge is working hard to mirror the success of 826 Valencia right here in Pierce County.

Droge said that 35 to 40 hours of tutoring in one academic year can result in a full year’s advancement in reading level for students.

“Wow,” he said, “That is pretty powerful. So you sit down and figure out how many weeks in a school year and that turns out to be one hour a week for volunteers.”
The Find An Hour program has already helped Lincoln High School students reach the highest percentage of all the high school students in Tacoma that passed the end-of-course exams in algebra.

Droge said this volunteer effort is gaining ground and getting Find An Hour some national recognition for achieving the kind of results that charter schools receive, but within a public school setting.

“Some of these kids just plain don’t know how good they are,” said Eggers in his 2008 speech. “You can tell them. We hope you will join us.”

Droge and his group are seeing an opportunity to move to the next level. “In a lean budget time, we have a lot of human capital here,” he said.  “People who are willing to devote themselves to educational excellence.”

Droge said they teamed up with the City Council and they passed a Resolution in October. The goal, said Droge, is to find 500 new tutors and mentors this year. They are just beginning a series of orientation meetings.

“Try to find an hour in your week,” said Droge, who is part of the citywide coalition, “to work one-on-one with a student in Tacoma.”

More information can be found at the Find An Hour website at: http://findanhour.org.
“When a caring adult spends just one hour of time per week with a child or teen over the course of a school year, two lives can be changed–theirs and yours,” says the website.

Droge is in the process of reaching out to Senior Activity Centers to get volunteers. Anyone interested can contact Droge at (253) 255 3810.

In 2010, the staff at East Main Animal Hospital in Puyallup, in an effort to unite rescued pets with loving homes, formed Sunny Sky’s Animal Rescue.

Sunny Sky’s is the non-profit arm of East Main Animal Hospital and under that umbrella, a senior pet adoption program will commence around the first of the year.

Volunteer Linnaea Pagni Mittelstadt said this is a program that Dr. Illina Berton, owner of East Main Animal Hospital, has wanted to get going for a long time. “Now that they have the non profit status,” said Mittelstadt, “we are anxious to get it going.”

Often senior pets are the last ones to be adopted and so the goal of the new program is to link those pets with senior citizens.

Many seniors don’t want to own a large dog or a rambunctious puppy, so matching pets with seniors who have common lifestyles and energy levels makes perfect sense.

Mittelstadt helped get the 501(c)3 status. “I have some grant writing experience and this status is a whole different ballgame,” she said, adding that now the group can apply for some grant funding and will be able to accept donations that are tax-free.

Mittelstadt describes Dr. Berton as a Mother Teresa. “She would take all the animals in if she could squash them into that building,” she said.
East Main Animal Hospital is a friendly, busy place with cats wandering throughout and a gate in front of the door to keep them safely inside.  Realizing the importance of pets to senior citizens, the hospital offers a 10 percent discount to seniors who are 60 and over.

Dr. Berton’s goal is to eventually waive any adoption fees annual vaccination fees, as well as provide some food and services for seniors adopting pets. “A lofty goal,” said Mittelstadt.

Saying that these adoptions would be a good match, Dr. Berton added that the hospital gets a lot of small pets from a shelter in California that has a high kill rate, and these smaller animals could be a good fit for senior citizens.

The hospital is currently applying for a grant with the Dugan Foundation that will provide some funds to use as a base so the Hospital can offer follow-up care.

“Older animals often require more medical care and if seniors are on a limited income, that can be a problem,” said Berton.
Manager of Multi Care Celebrate Seniority Elizabeth Nelson agrees with Berton and said that her group would be happy to work with the adoption program and help introduce seniors to the advantages of adopting an older pet.

“We are on the cusp right now,” she said, “but we have talked about ways we can partner together.”

One of the ideas being tossed around is an opportunity for seniors from Multi Care Celebrate Seniority to help walk dogs, thus freeing up volunteers at the hospital for other duties.

Nelson said she knows how owning a pet can benefit the senior population and how the companionship and opportunity for more exercise can extend lives of both the pets and their owners, by raising their spirits and keeping active.