Dec. 16, 2004
IN
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2004 CNPA Award
Feature Writing - First Place
On the cover:
by EMILY
GURNON
JOY EHLERT HAS BECOME accustomed
to spotting the signs of poverty among elderly people. Ehlert,
the nutrition director for the Humboldt Senior Resource Center,
was at the meat counter of a local market one day when she overheard
an old woman telling the butcher that she didn't see what she
was looking for. What was that? he asked.
"The trimmings from the
bacon," the woman replied. When the butcher went in the
back to look, the woman turned to Ehlert.
"I just don't know what
I'm going to do," she said. "I'm taking my last pill,
and it costs $100" for the prescription. In her basket was
one small can of vegetables. She was buying nothing else. The
butcher returned, handing the woman a small wrapped package.
"How much?" she asked.
"No charge."
Ehlert knows firsthand that
the woman's story is not unique. More than 3,000 people in the
county, or 15 percent of those over 60, are considered to be
in "greatest economic need," meaning their income is
at or below 125 percent of poverty level, according to a study
by the Area Agency on Aging in Eureka. Thousands receive help
from the many local agencies that offer services to the elderly,
but those services are going to be stretched even more thinly
than they are now, for one simple reason: "Baby boomers"
are getting old.
"We see a huge need coming
up," Ehlert said. "What we're afraid of is we're not
going to be able to cover requests for services."
The sudden increase in the birth
rate after World War II resulted in what became known as the
"baby boom," and officially included those born between
1946 and 1964. The oldest of the boomers will hit age 60 in two
years. That means that they will qualify for many state and federally
funded services, such as the senior dining room program and home-delivered
meals that the Senior Center provides.
"This is happening at the
same time that our ability to get money from state and federal
sources is declining," Ehlert said.
Providing a lifeline
Tykeshia Leschke [photo above, at right] has been working with seniors for six years, including
as a driver for the home-delivered meals program at the Senior
Center. One recent weekday, the 28-year-old College of the Redwoods
student loaded up her Chevy Impala with 20 containers of pizza,
salad, milk and cookies, and drove through Eureka to see her
lunch clients, who call her "Ty." She'll make about
$25 for the three-hour route, hardly enough to put a dent in
what she needs to support her 3-year-old daughter. Yet she loves
it.
"Doing this job has made
me realize that it's the small things that really matter,"
Leschke said. "They're always so happy to see me. Sometimes
I'm the only person they see [that day]. And sometimes that makes
the biggest difference. Even if I only go in and take the lids
off [the containers] or something. Something as small as that
-- in their life, it's everything."
The stops on her route range
from small, dingy apartments to well-kept homes with a lifetime
collection of prized spoons or plates on the walls. Some clients
greet Leschke from a living room recliner, hooked up to oxygen.
Most are alone.
Client No. 2 on the route is Jinny Jernigan
[photo at left] . Jernigan, 71, was plagued by a series of health
problems earlier this year. She had fallen and shattered her
shoulder, losing the use of her right arm -- that on top of brain
surgery and a stroke. The combination stole her appetite and
left her unable to cook; she shed 20 pounds from her already
slender frame. It was at that time that her part-time care provider
got her signed up for home-delivered meals.
"It was just a lifesaver,"
she said. "I really owe my recovery to this meal program
-- I know I do."
With her children scattered
outside California, Jernigan does not have family to look after
her. She lives on just $620 a month, of which she donates $35
to the Senior Center for the five-day-a-week meals.
Jernigan offered Leschke and
a reporter a cup of warm apple cider while she showed the driver
a photo of a baby possum that had visited her porch one recent
night. "I have other people in my life that are wonderfully
helpful, but Ty is just a blessing," she continued. "It
makes a difference seeing someone every day, and when it's someone
as intelligent and pleasant as Ty," even better.
The graying boomers
The numbers of Humboldt County
residents aged 65 and up are already growing much faster than
the population as a whole. The 65-plus group increased by 9.2
percent between 1990 and 2000, when total population for the
county grew by only 4 percent, according to the Area Agency on
Aging. In the next 10-year period, to 2010, the numbers of those
65 and up is expected to grow by 12 percent. And from 2000-2020,
experts project a 64 percent increase.
The impact on social services
will be "huge," said Chris Martinek, planner for the
Area Agency on Aging. "If we don't think we have waiting
lists now..."
The baby boom generation also
includes a higher percentage of poor people, Martinek said, which
will mean that they may have even less retirement savings or
Social Security income than the current elderly. Social Security
payments are based on how much one earns in a lifetime.
The bottom line is that more
people are likely to be suffering, and the agencies that work
with older people will have to serve more clients with less money,
Martinek said. "It is a huge challenge, and it is one that
we are striving to meet. The waiting lists already exist. It's
going to be finding creative ways to address these issues."
Part of what her agency is doing
is trying to determine what seniors need the most. To that end,
they conducted a survey in 2000 of 713 residents of Humboldt
and Del Norte counties.
The top concerns among the elderly?
Household chores, accidents in the home, health care, money to
live on and loneliness.
The fact that chores topped
the list may seem surprising -- unless you know what it's like
to be old, Martinek said.
"Think about if you couldn't
do your laundry, or you can't wash the floor anymore so when
you spill something it stays there. When those basic parts of
life can't be done, the world alters."
`What a drag it
is getting old'
Two years ago, Food for People,
the area's food bank, gave out monthly bags of groceries to all
low-income elderly who needed it. Since then, the demand has
begun to outpace the supply. Now, the organization distributes
bags to 780 seniors a month -- and it's not enough. The waiting
list has grown to 40, and more than 50 people ask about it every
month.
"What we're seeing are
increased requests for help," said Anne Holcomb, Food for
People's executive director. "As the cost of living goes
up but these folks are still trying to live on a fixed income,
it just really puts the squeeze on."
The fact that the baby boomers
will soon move into old age worries her, Holcomb said. "If
the economy doesn't get radically better, we're very concerned
about how these seniors are going to be able to survive."
The elderly make up a big chunk
of the people who come in to the food bank for other food assistance
as well, Holcomb said. In order to try to meet the increased
demand, especially around the holidays, the organization is holding
its annual Holiday Spirit Food and Fund Drive, encouraging residents
to fill grocery bags with nonperishable foods and drop them at
Food for People collection barrels throughout the county.
One bag or box of food a month
may not seem like much when the need is so great. But many elderly
can make a little go a long way -- and every little bit helps
them retain the independence that they guard so fiercely.
"If they're not able to
obtain adequate nutrition, their health declines and they lose
their independence," Holcomb said. "Then, the burden
to the taxpayer and to the family is much more significant."
The Senior Center serves 40,000
meals each year at its dining centers in Eureka, Fortuna and
Arcata. It also delivers more than 52,000 meals a year -- to
225 people a day -- through its home delivery program, which
extends from Trinidad to Fortuna. Recipients are asked to donate
whatever they can afford, but the money doesn't ever cover the
costs, said Ehlert, the nutrition director. There are 10 to 15
people on the waiting list at any given time, and about 30 new
people are referred for the home meals each month. The Rotary
Club of Eureka has contributed $30,000 to help expand the program,
but more donations from individuals are needed.
Bryn Werren of the Humboldt Senior Resource Center scoops ravioli
into containers for delivery to home-bound seniors.
Rhonda Moore working in the HSRC kitchen, preparing meals to
deliver.
Meals stacked on shelves stay warm in the HSRC delivery van.
Food or pills?
For seniors on a limited income,
the costs of rent or home maintenance and insurance, plus utilities,
transportation and medical care, add up fast. Food then becomes
"the one sort of negotiable item" in elderly people's
budgets, as Holcomb put it. And like the woman Ehlert saw at
the grocery store who was trying to live off bacon trimmings,
many seniors feel they are forced to choose between eating and
buying expensive prescription drugs.
Jerry
Voorhees [photo at left]
has worked as a pharmacist in Humboldt
County for 34 years, and is now pharmacist in charge at Henderson
Center Pharmacy in Eureka.
He said he often sees customers
who are visibly distressed at the cost of their medications.
"Happens almost every day. Especially if there's no insurance
involved. If they have no insurance and it costs them right straight
out of pocket, they're very concerned," he said.
The most pricey are the new
drugs. "They're all outrageously expensive," Voorhees
said. And they may be only marginally better than an older, vastly
cheaper drug.
Voorhees said he counsels his
customers to start questioning their doctors, to ask what the
benefit of the drug is, whether there are alternatives or generics,
and what's it going to cost.
The problem is, many people
of the older generation are not accustomed to doing anything
that might be construed as challenging the medical experts, he
said.
"I'm 63. People my age
and a little older were always told the doctor was God, and we
don't question him. I just see so many older folks, in their
70s or 80s, who have never asked a question of a doctor in their
life. They've gone to the doctor, they've gotten the diagnosis,
they've gotten the prescription, they've come and gotten it filled
and they've gone home.
"As the baby boomer population
gets grayer, the people in this generation are more bold, they've
been given more freedoms, they've had better choices, and they
know how to ask for those choices. The younger people know they
can ask questions and aren't afraid to."
Coping with it
all
In addition to the physical
and financial challenges many elderly face, growing old can carry
with it a host of emotional difficulties, said Laura Holmes,
a licensed clinical social worker who coordinates Humboldt County's
Older Adults Program.
"We see people who have
functioned well, worked, raised families and been successful,
but when they reach old age, there are the common challenges
of aging -- illness, loss of a spouse -- that can sometimes cause
depression," Holmes said.
In Humboldt County, Holmes has
also seen elderly people who moved here upon retirement, underestimating
how difficult it could be to leave behind the social supports
they may have had back home and connect with a new community.
The baby boomers will not be
as reluctant, as a whole, to seek help, Holmes said. But those
who are now 70 and older "grew up at a time when they were
supposed to be very independent and self-sufficient, and mental
illness of any kind, even depression, was seen as a sign of weakness,
or something to be ashamed of," she said. "The idea
that it could even be treated is a newer idea to many of these
older adults."
Those who can get past the stigma
of seeing a therapist or psychiatrist may have transportation
problems that make it difficult to do, Holmes said.
Having too little money can
limit an elderly person's options for mental health treatment.
And, of course, "if you're really worried about how to put
groceries on the table, it can contribute to increased anxiety
and depression," Holmes said. "In any case, poverty
just makes it more stressful and difficult."
`Behind the facade'
Joy Ehlert's encounter with
the old woman at the meat counter didn't end with the woman's
confession that she was destitute. Ehlert asked if she would
come to one of the dining centers; the woman explained that her
husband was disabled and couldn't get out of the house. Ehlert
then suggested the home-delivered meals program. The woman shook
her head.
"We don't need it yet,"
she said.
That was the hardest part, Ehlert
said. "She wouldn't let me help her. People are unaware
that help is available, and when it's offered, they still don't
feel they're needy enough yet. There are more people who need
it than we realize.
"To me, it's the hidden
ones, the seniors who are hidden behind the facade of being OK,
when really they're not -- it breaks my heart."
GET HELP, GIVE HELP
HUMBOLDT SENIOR RESOURCE
CENTER
1910 CALIFORNIA ST., EUREKA, 443-9747
Provides home-delivered meals, senior
dining facilities, senior activities, and assistance with home
repairs, firewood, information and referrals on numerous issues.
Cash donations needed to help pay for services. Volunteers needed
in the dining room and kitchen; volunteer drivers needed in Trinidad
and Fortuna for meal delivery.
FOOD
FOR PEOPLE - FOOD BANK
307 W. 14TH ST., EUREKA, 445-3166
Provides monthly food bags for seniors,
monthly food boxes for low-income residents, other foods as available.
Volunteers needed for delivering food bags to seniors; cash donations
needed for all services.
Donations of nonperishables being collected
through December in barrels at Safeway, Murphy's markets, Ray's
Food Place, Wildberries, Les Schwab Tire Centers, U.S. Bank,
and the Willow Creek Community Resource Center, among others.
AREA
AGENCY ON AGING
3300 GLENWOOD ST., EUREKA, 442-3763
Provides an Aging and Disability Resource
Center, programs to assist caregivers, a caregiver registry for
those needing help, and free counseling on questions involving
health insurance, prescriptions and Medicare. Also information
on services available to seniors in this area at 442-9591.
IN-HOME SUPPORT SERVICES (IHSS)
808 E ST., EUREKA, 476-2100
A county program that provides non-medical,
caregiving services to eligible, low-income seniors. Caregivers
help with daily tasks such as cleaning, meal preparation, bathing
and dressing. Those needing services may arrange for friends
or family members to be their paid caregivers through the program.
SENIOR LEGAL ASSISTANCE
LEGAL
SERVICES OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
123 THIRD ST., EUREKA, 445-0866
In-person or telephone consultations
on legal issues affecting senior citizens (age 60+) and their
families.
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