Our director and her staff, all the seniors, it seems that your problem is their problem. Darcia has a friend who teaches the blind. She has a little girl student who is going into a higher grade. She was going to sell a (special) video machine and Darcia brought it and showed us that our life wasn't over. There are a lot of things that you can do. I had never heard of anything like this. If I couldn't see, I was dead. I bought that machine, and it is wonderful. Now I can read my own mail, I can write my own checks. I like to play bingo, and we play a lot of that over at the center. Darcia got me a great big bingo card. I couldn't see the little discs that we had on this great big bingo card, so one of our ladies, Virginia, crocheted (large) size markers for me. I can play bingo just like the rest of the people. I (now) win a lot of times. They (also) found me a talking alarm clock, which flabbergasted me, because I never thought there was such a thing. I never was interested in things like that. I didn't have that problem. So that alarm clock is wonderful, because you just press the button and it tells you what time it is. The only problem is that it has an alarm, and it's a rooster, so I was blaming all my neighbors for having a rooster at 4:00 in the morning because I couldn't see that it was the alarm. (I now have) talking books. That is the most wonderful, wonderful program for blind people that has ever been invented, and I hope it never disappears. I don't go so much for fiction. I like history, geography, biography, things like that. And I think I learned more since I've been blind than I had all the years I went to school. There is another gentleman in my club who has the same problem I have, and he had his own medical supply business, and his own plane. When this happened to him, he was thrown for a loop, just like I was. He fell apart also, only he didn't turn to a doctor for help, nor did he go into a depression. He started to drink and, of course, when he hit bottom he called Darcia and tells her he's going to commit suicide. Well, there were two people in our organization who took him under their wings and they took him to AA. They took him to therapy, and they worked with him for quite some time. Although Mike is not the healthiest person, he (now) seems to be very happy these days, and even (with) that great big video eye, he even makes model airplanes, which just floored me, because I couldn't understand how he could do that. And then we have another couple, Tom and Alice. She was a lovely little lady. She had heart surgery. Two months, after this little girl had heart surgery, she had a stroke. Her entire left side was paralyzed. She came down in the wheelchair and played bingo with us, and tried so hard, but half the time she forgot what she was doing. It was hard for her. We all felt bad. When she graduated from the wheelchair to the walker, we celebrated. When she graduated from the walker to the cane, we were just thrilled to pieces. Anyway, this little girl at one time had cancer. I didn't know about that immediately, but she did. About six months after all this happened to her, her cancer comes back. Well, that was just a little too much for little Alice to handle. She threw in the towel. Her husband Tom kept coming to the center, but not as often. He was heartbroken. You know how it is when you lose someone. One day he calls the office and tells Darcia his furniture is all out on the street. They have repossessed his dwelling. He has no place to go. She had to find him a place. The workers do everything for us. It's wonderful. They found him a senior high-rise, but in the next town, and he's very happy. He still comes to the Putnam County Center. On July 31, we were going to a dinner playhouse, and all the seniors are dressed to the hilt and all sitting in the bus waiting. The driver is there and the motor is running, and we couldn't find 65
our director. We went back into the building, and there is Darcia on the phone with another little senior, who was so upset because she's on a respirator and they were coming to shut off her electricity. Darcia wouldn't let the bus move until she got somebody to take over. She took care of it, and knew that this person was going to be all right. We went to our playhouse, and it was enjoyable. This is one thing we do at different times of the year. We have different things. We have a bazaar, because we have to meet a certain amount of money. We all work like little beavers, baking and everything else. This is what goes on sometimes at our end. 66
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Speaker’s Summit on Senior Servic
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PANELISTS AT STATE SUMMIT MEETING G
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Interoffice Memorandum January 2004
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This 2nd stage of the summit focuse
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PRIMARY RECOMMENDATION ILLINOIS DEP
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ENCOURAGE NURSING HOMES TO CONVERT
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financial participation, as well as
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as the “baby boomers” reach the
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• Expand the range of services av
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- Page 27 and 28: didn't matter if he or she had a lo
- Page 29 and 30: folks are looking at other kinds of
- Page 31 and 32: Trying to get just workers and acco
- Page 33 and 34: There is also an automated pre-admi
- Page 35 and 36: Personal care was provided as an op
- Page 37 and 38: State and Medicaid Spending Total E
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- Page 41 and 42: Rick Dees Illinois Department of Pu
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- Page 51 and 52: Julie Sampson Citizen Action The Lo
- Page 53 and 54: The United States healthcare system
- Page 55 and 56: • Make doing home care, and worki
- Page 57 and 58: documented the assaults, but nobody
- Page 59 and 60: The SEIU report, “Facing a Crisis
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- Page 63 and 64: providers, and the state by streaml
- Page 65 and 66: Steve Nussbaum Life Services Networ
- Page 67 and 68: We have a program that many of our
- Page 69: Putnam County has 1,264 seniors, wi
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- Page 75 and 76: ≡ Eliminate asset tests for home
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Other Measures of Success Paradi
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Conclusions Promoting non-governme
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Principles of Reform Choice Offer m
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What’s Working • 39% of LTC bud
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Other Essential Ingredients • Goo
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