Travis County Commissioners Court
January 31, 2006
Item 27
27. Receive report from aging services council on the needs of older adults in Travis County.
>> we have not really prepared any formal presentation. We were told that you all wanted to -- to receive this report, so we are delighted to provide it to you. Here today are Ron wild, who is the coordinator for the aging services council of Travis County. Lisa kerber and myself, jeanie meyer, both lisa and I are from the st. David's's community health foundation. This report, this survey and report were a collaborative initiative, the st. David's community health foundation provided the funding and the -- the different agencies who would make up the aging services council, providing much of the manpower to identify the survey instrument questions to -- to develop the methodology and then to move forward with the actual survey and the report. So we have delighted to present to you a statistically very accurate summary of the needs of Travis County residents currently in this age group. What we have found through this group are that there are receiver unmet needs -- several unmet needs. I think most of you will not be surprised to hear what they have. One of the first ones, of course is transportation. This community is not an easy community to get around in when you have any type of constraint such as age, eyesight that's beginning to -- to be compromised. Another need that we have identified, of course, is isolation. We have many elder adults who are living in the community, in their own homes, who do not always have lots of -- lots of interaction. So -- so another need which was a little bit surprising, actually, and something that I think you all need to be aware of. And it was voiced pretty consistently throughout the -- the -- all different -- break -- demographic break downs of the data was the need for assistance with home repairs and major -- not improvements, but just -- just significant home maintenance issues like air conditioning systems that go out, plumbing systems, you can imagine. That was a -- that was a consistently voiced need. Another area of concern was the lack of dental care for this population as well. We are hoping that -- that some of the results of this information will -- will be helpful to you in determining some of your public policy strategies and decisions.
>> I want to say thanks for this report. Judge Biscoe and I also got this report when we attended the community action network. I appreciate the fact that you are making the rounds. Because as many times as you can make contact with the public and get this information out there. Where I find this incredibly valuable is that Travis County has some 46 social service contracts, and we make investments in some of the very things that you all have identified and if there are gaps that is also very helpful because we are going to have other opportunities either budget, potentially community development block grants that we will hear about later today, but we are already some -- major investor in things like family elder care, services for the elderly and -- and meals on wheels and more. So also anything that you can do to just help us with those gap things, I know our office is directly dealt with things related to the transportation, making sure that they know that we have senior luncheon programs at our community centers that we can help make sure that there are no gaps in that and if it is getting to meals on wheels, there is that interaction as well. So -- I applaud your work and -- and tell us what's next.
>> well, we applaud your investment in this community and jean til from partners in caregiving just arrived. She's been very active in looking at transportation issues in this community, I urge you to question her while she's here if you have any specific questions. I think that our our desire is that you continue to keep this population up front in terms of your allocation of public funding because it is a population that is largely silent. They have a great deal of pride. They want to maintain their independence. They don't like to ask for help. They are not cute and cuddly like a child and with the future, you know, rosy future. So it is important for us to keep this population in a high priority setting for all of us in terms of public policy. Because as I said, they are not -- you know drumming their own drums and so it is important that all of us recognize their needs and move forward with them.
>> I would like to also thank you for your work that you are doing. I understand just recently polls that have been taken according to those polls, about 76% of the nation, this nation's population has some real legitimate concerns about health care. Health care delivery. Just all across the spectrum. So it is a top priority issue in this country today. That means it filters also down to the local level and just not the senior citizens, all across the spectrum. That is one of the main concerns, one of the top priority things that the persons in -- in the country are saying are a top priority is health care. Health care delivery, on down things. What we are doing here locally is just I think, just a reflux -- reflection of what we are doing, taking care of not only the seniors, but those also that fall victim because of a lack of adequate -- adequate health services. So I think we are right in stride, right in tune, I would like to applaud you all for what you are doing.
>> so I think to follow up on what you said, jean could possibly say something. One of the concerns that did come out of this survey was access to transportation to health services. Other and over again we hear that our older adults cannot make adequate arrangements for transportation to doctor's appointments, to chemotherapy, so jean would you like to say something.
>> I’m west Austin caregivers, representing all of the caregiver programs actually in the greater Austin area. With all eight of us we provide services to over 2,000 older adults. The majority in Travis County, some of them filtering up into Williamson county. A big part of what our program does is through volunteers, using their own vehicles, provide transportation to seniors to essential needs, medical related getting food or getting to the bank, but also we allow another ride a week for quality of life. And we literally say to the clients, just let your mind wander, whatever is going to float your boat. It minimum getting to the hairdresser, barber, library, to one of their volunteer jobs, in other words, we try to encourage them to keep out and about in the community and to be a very vital part of the community. The more we see them, the more we are going to recognize that some of the needs they may have. We are in a -- in concert not just with partners in caregiving, but also we collaborate with meals on wheels, meals on wheels and more has a mini wheels program. When all of us do home assessments, we take us with sts applications to make sure that they are aware of that program. Help them fill them out. Personally I am also sitting on two transportation councils, Commissioners, whatever, one is the urban transportation commission and we are meeting tonight again particularly about -- about the problem with transportation of the hurricane evacuees are having, also serve on the regional transportation commission council I believe. In terms of the older adults of the hurricane evacuees that came. I have to laud all of the agency councils that helped with the triage needed for the seniors who were evacuees coming into our area. A lot of them are staying, they just don't have the means to pick up and go back to new orleans. There isn't even a house or an apartment still to live there. We are working on transportation. One of the things that the caregiver programs did was receive a special grant from the junior league of Austin to provide cab service. We coordinated that for the senior evacuees. Programs like that, we consider that a pilot test. We would like to see that up and rolling. If we could get a kitty where we could get concerned community members, maybe even more grantors to put money in a kitty. Programs like ours, small non-profits, we can coordinate that and still keep seniors out and about using all different methods, transportation, cab service, special transit.
>> thank you.
>> any other comments?
>> thank you very much.
>> regarding the evacuees, other impacts from hurricanes katrina and rita, we also handed out a compilation of what our different member agencies had to do during that period. It's just for your information. It's a reflection for future planning on what non-profits were called upon to do. It's a listing of what they did, how they went about it. The kinds of resources they had to deliver. It's available to you.
>> we will read that information, keep supporting our seniors, try to do even more.
>> thank you all for coming down.
>> thank you.
>> appreciate it very much.
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, January 31, 2006 3:38 PM