O’Neill Announces Program Improvements

O’Neill Announces Program Improvements

By Terry Zdrale

The O'Neill Senior Center recently made several program changes to improve the efficiency of its programs and better serve the needs of the county’s growing senior population.The program changes involve both the Center’s homemaker and chore services.

Prior to the recent program changes, allowable tasks of the center’s nine homemakers were extremely limited. For example, the homemakers could do light cleaning, laundry or grocery shopping; they were not permitted to do such things as remove or hang curtains, shampoo a carpet, or sweep up leaves from walkways.

On the other hand, the chore program, which had just one part-time employee, was permitted to do heavier chores, but a waiting list was common. In addition, a large amount of the chore worker’s time was being consumed by just a few, high intensity jobs, mostly involving painting.

To serve the needs of as many seniors as possible, the decision was made to design a new program which would merge many of the tasks of the two programs. The new program: living assistance, follows a set of guidelines which expands the types of tasks that can be performed by living assistance aides to include many commonly requested jobs, such as those mentioned above. Other tasks, which involved extensive staff time, such as painting and raking entire yards, have been eliminated.

The board of trustees and the management staff believe that the new living assistance program will provide higher levels of customer satisfaction, and that many more seniors will benefit.

Living Assistance Program Guidelines

The Living Assistance program is designed for seniors who are unable to complete certain activities of daily living and who reside in their own home or apartment. The goal of the program is to help the senior maintain a clean, safe, and healthy living environment.

Living Assistance may include, but is not limited to, the following tasks: General household activities:

1. laundry
2. bed making and changing
3. dusting
4. shopping
5. bath and kitchen care
6. errands
7. meal preparation and clean up
8. replacing furnace filters
9. waste disposal
10. light seasonal yard care and snow removal (limited to walkways)
11. write checks

Heavy household activities:

1. washing floors
2. washing windows
3. washing woodwork
4. removing, washing and hanging curtains
5. cleaning out cabinets and small storage areas
6. carpet cleaning
7. moving heavy items of furniture to provide safe access and egress (two persons will be assigned)
8. turn mattresses
9. clean patios and furniture
10. clean blinds, ceiling fans, and light fixtures
11. clean out refrigerators and/or freezers

Living Assistance differs from traditional homemaking in that the aides are permitted to use a step ladder (no higher than 8 foot) if necessary to complete the job, and may perform heavier household activities as assigned. It differs also in that the living assistant may be required to transport Center-owned equipment to the job site (i.e. carpet cleaner).

Seniors may be on a regular (weekly or biweekly) schedule to receive living assistance or may be scheduled by the program coordinator on an “as needed” basis to assist the senior with heavier household activities. Still, others may be seen on a weekly basis for general household tasks and receive help with heavier tasks periodically as scheduled by the coordinator.

Living Assistance aides are not permitted to transport the senior.