Ozaukee County, Wisconsin

Annual Report of the Aging Services - 2004

The activities of the Aging Services Department are divided into several categories. They are: Administration, Supportive Services, Resource Center, Nutrition Programs, and Community Outreach. The programs provided will be discussed along these category lines.

This department continues to provide an out of county transportation program for Ozaukee County residents 60 and over and for those persons who are physically or developmentally disabled. In an effort to control costs in this program the Commission on Aging agreed to limit our out of county service to those persons who were confined to a wheelchair and needed to travel out of county for medical services not provided within the county. Other ambulatory individuals were referred to Interfaith Caregivers for transportation provided by volunteers and we continued our contract with G & G Enterprises to provide the wheelchair service. Interfaith Caregivers received a small grant from the Commission in order to recruit and reimburse volunteers for their mileage. Out of county trips continue to be provided to treatment facilities in Milwaukee and Sheboygan Counties for specialized medical care. One staff person spends approximately 5% of her time on this program. In 2004 the out of county transportation program served 20 persons, providing 364 hours of service. 351 one-way out of county trips were made in 2004 for medical purposes. Interfaith volunteers provided 204 out of county trips to 33 clients.

Information and Assistance and Outreach is a fundamental component of any resource center. Access to information is vital for individuals concerned about long term care issues. The Aging Services Department is responsible for all intake for services and information that relate to older adults. Also, staff continue to assist older adults and physically disabled persons under the age of 60 with the completion of COP (Community Options Program) applications. Again this year this program has seen an increase in the amount of service provided, utilizing the efforts of two staff persons. From 2003 to 2004 there has been a 27.4% increase in the number of people served and a 17.1% increase in contacts. As our community continues to age the provision of information and assistance becomes increasingly important. Remaining independent in the community is the goal of all older adults and assistance is often necessary in order to achieve this. Aging Services Department staff meet with older adults and their families to help sort through the choices available. The process involves assessing what the individual can and cannot do, what family supports are on hand, and what community services or agencies can be called on for assistance. This review includes a look at the person’s financial resources followed by appropriate referrals for funding if necessary. We continue to see a steady increase in the numbers of people calling for information, for which we provide some sort of assistance or referral. During this past year, staff have often been overwhelmed with the number of requests for service. We also provide outreach to individuals and community groups who request information/services. The staff utilizes a database program designed specifically for intake purposes. This program, called BEACON, coordinates with the SAMS database that we are using and eliminates double data entry. In 2004, we had 2104 contacts for Information and Assistance, serving 1545 unduplicated persons.

The purpose of the Benefit Specialist Program is to provide broad access to benefits, entitlements and legal rights to older persons. This program promotes and preserves the autonomy, dignity, independence and financial security of older persons. We continue to have 1.05 FTE’s (Full time equivalents) in staff allocated to this program. The issues that the Benefit Specialist handles include Medicare supplements, Medicaid, Medicare, Other Insurance, Financial and Housing Issues, Community services and long term care. In addition to the workshops conducted in regard to the above insurance issues we continued to conduct other educational workshops in the community around Medicare issues and other health benefits. The Benefit Specialist also advocates for the elderly in medical payment disputes, either by encouraging the provider (physician, etc.) to accept assignment (Medicare payment) or to lower their bill, or by appealing Medicare denials. In addition, both the Information and Assistance Specialists and the Benefit Specialist continue to assist individuals with their renewal for the Senior Care program (Wisconsin’s prescription drug program).

A stated goal for 2004 was to continue to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of the nine senior dining centers located throughout the county. We also continued our participation in the Senior Farmers’ Market Program. Because of cutbacks at the state and federal level the number of vouchers we received for 2004 was decreased and we were only able to offer vouchers to 125 persons, with many others waiting for possible vouchers. These vouchers enable the older adult to purchase Wisconsin grown produce.

This program provides older persons, 60 years of age and older, the opportunity to eat at least one hot nutritious meal a day and to meet socially while continuing to live independently in their own home. During 2004 we continued to examine the participation level at our dining centers in relation to their cost. Due to this examination a decision was made at the end of 2004 to change the organization of a dining center at a local apartment complex for seniors. Instead of having a county employee supervise this site, the apartment manager will supervise this site, with the assistance of volunteers, in 2005. This program continued to utilize one-half of a staff person’s time, four site managers who worked 20 hours a week, and two site managers who worked 10 hours per week. In addition we have several substitute site managers available to work when the regular site manager is unable to do so. Our contract with the Ozaukee County Sheriff’s Department for the preparation of meals continued in 2004.

A hot nutritious meal is delivered to the homebound, age 60 and over, who are unable to cook for themselves and who have no other resources to obtain a meal. Meals are delivered Monday through Friday, excluding holidays. Frozen meals are available for persons who need them, either over holidays or weekends. Meals continue to be delivered throughout the county at noon from four of our meal sites. The Home Delivered Meals program utilizes one-half of a staff person’s time and three part-time drivers. The drivers pick up the food at the jail and deliver it to the meal centers. After the driver has delivered the food to the centers he delivers meals to the homebound in the northern part of the county – an area where we do not have any volunteer drivers. Due to an increasing number of people utilizing this program, all centers now have two routes established for delivery of meals. Fortunately, we have wonderful volunteers so that we are able to split routes in this manner so that no one route becomes too long. We will continue to see growth in the Home Delivered Meal Program due to the number of older adults trying to maintain their independence in the community. This program is now serving more meals than our Congregate Meal Program. Again this past year we offered a home delivered meal for Thanksgiving in conjunction with Nisleit’s Restaurant in Port Washington. We asked county employees to volunteer to deliver this meal and we had a tremendous response. Five volunteers delivered a Thanksgiving meal to 28 participants.