Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Township trustees hope to have a program in place in a month.
LIBERTY — Township officials, in the aftermath of an older woman’s death, are moving to start a program to assist their senior citizens.
They’ll have a lot of help from programs already established.
Trustees and members of the township’s safety forces on Tuesday discussed aspects of a potential senior watch program. They listened to the advice and suggestions of professionals who interact with seniors daily.
The need for a program aimed at keeping in touch with senior citizens was brought to the forefront after the April death of Mary Rush of Mansell Drive.
Rush, 87, was found on her front porch, unconscious with severe cuts, just after 7 a.m. April 28. The porch area was covered in blood, and a large rock was found by a nearby broken window.
Police had checked the area by car twice that morning, when Rush would have likely been outside, after a neighbor complained of someone crying out. But they did not find her.
Judge Thomas Swift of Trumbull County Probate Court told trustees about a program to maintain contact with wards of the court ,where information on seniors is readily available to officers in an emergency. The township could model this approach, he said.
“This provides all the basic information about an individual in a given area or on a given street. If there is a call to an area or a street for an older person or person with a disability wandering, for example, this would give a good indication where that person might be,” he said.
Police, Judge Swift said, would be provided all the basic information about any person in the program such as age, address, any impairments or disabilities and an emergency contact person. All information provided to officers is voluntary, he said.
Deputy Sheriff Kay Lavelle offered similar points from a program being used by the sheriff’s department in Mahoning County.
Lavelle said seniors in Mahoning County can fill out an application with basic information and be contacted regularly by sheriff’s deputies and police officers. Those officers then detail in a log any problems or complaints the senior citizen may have.
“It all starts with the police officer checking in on these people, just stopping in to see them, and it doesn’t take a lot of time,” she said.
Lavelle said the program has proven beneficial to senior citizens and law enforcement as seniors are often the eyes and ears of their community and alert police when something is amiss.
Dan VanDussen, professor of gerontology and member of the advisers for the senior services unit in Mahoning County, said the advisers have devised a training seminar and are willing to offer it to township emergency response personnel. He said the training is beneficial in helping emergency workers understand the needs of senior citizens.
Dave Mirkin of Comfort Keepers, an organization doing in-home care for seniors, said many seniors are interested in the programs available, but just don’t know those programs exist.
“The key to what we need to do here is education. We need to get the information out to the group of people receiving the least amount of this information,” he said.
Trustee Gary Litch, who spoke of his aging parents and his first-hand knowledge of the need for such a program, said all three trustees and all township officials are committed to doing something on behalf of seniors living in the township.
Trustee Jack Simon said trustees plan to have some sort of program in place in about a month. He said the township will take from the programs detailed by Lavelle and Judge Swift to formulate its program.
Simon said a contact person has been appointed from both the police and fire departments and the list of seniors interested in participating in the program will soon be compiled.
Steve Harwood, chairman of the Trumbull County Senior Levy Advisory Board, said a funding source from the senior levy can likely be found when the township has a program in place.
“The priority is keeping seniors safe in their homes,” he said. “If you have a program to be funded, let me know and I will put you in touch with the right chairs to get the appropriate funding.”
jgoodwin@vindy.com