MANY OF YOU who have paid any attention to these columns at all for the past 950 or more weeks are painfully aware that I’ve been whining about the advent of the Baby Boomers onto the “long-term care” scene for most of them — and with a singular lack of results.
Indeed, to date, at the local, state and national levels, we’ve made minimal progress toward planning for the biggest demographic hiccup since the inception of pestilence, so I guess I just need to let that go.
And maybe the fact that most of us Boomers outgrew and outlived the 1960s is why it has come up again: We’ve gotten older, some of us have gotten wiser and a few of us have even figured out that immortality is, on a good day, unlikely.
Whatever the reason, the question has come up again, “What the heck is ‘Information & Assistance’ and why do I care?”
Fair question.
Here’s what’s worth remembering: You can call any of the numbers I’ll give you in a moment and ask just about anything that might relate to anyone 60 or older, their families, their caregivers, folks who like them or folks who hope to be one someday. Just about anything.
The idea is to be able to tell you who to call, what website to try, what paperwork you’ll need to do whatever it is you want to do, or where you might find help with whatever it is you might need or want help with.
It doesn’t matter how much money you do or don’t have.
The fact is money doesn’t always help if you don’t know how to use it to get what you want.
And what most of us want (most of the time) is to be able to stay where we are, doing pretty much what we’re doing now pretty much the same way we’re doing it. And if that doesn’t make sense to you, ask anybody 60 or older, and they’ll explain it to you in short order.
But often it isn’t about answering this or that question; it’s about listening to “the story.”
Most folks are pretty bright and pretty creative — if they knew what they were looking for, they’d be halfway to getting it — but the world of “help” makes Alice’s “Wonderland” look like a walk in the park.
So, what needs to happen is for folks to tell their “story” — however long, however brief, the true story — and then folks like us can offer some ideas of what might “help.”
Maybe it’s finding ways to stay out of a nursing home such as Medicaid, in-home help or home health, etc.
Maybe it’s about understanding legal issues such as durable powers of attorney, advance directives or guardianships, etc.
What do you do and how do you do it?
Maybe it’s about trying to access, understand, navigate or survive health insurance — I don’t care how old you are.
Maybe you’re a caregiver. Not sure? OK, a caregiver is someone who is taking care of someone who needs to be taken care of, whether or not they like it.
Sound like something you’re doing? And you’re not sure if you can keep on doing it without some help? Or if you’re even doing it right?
Or maybe you’re suddenly raising some other family member’s kids — now what?
Or maybe someone you care about is in a nursing home, assisted living facility or adult family home — or is about to be in one — and you have some questions or worries?
Or you don’t know if you need a will?
Or you’re worried about your sister in Selma or your auntie in Anchorage?
Or the Medicare stuff you got in the mail doesn’t make any sense — again.
Or Mom is going to be discharged from the hospital tomorrow morning and you have no idea what to do, how to do it or what language the discharge planner is even speaking.
Or maybe you’re just trying to plan for the day that you might need some help and you don’t want the people you purport to love to have to come unglued in the middle of a crisis and try to invent the wheel.
Sure, we have all kinds of impressive-sounding programs with intimidating acronyms, but do you really care?
No, you don’t. At least, not right now.
What you care about is knowing who you can call that can (and will) help you figure out what help might look like, or how you’d even know it if you’d found it.
And this is all free.
Yes, some services and agencies have costs or eligibility criteria or whatnot, but the human piece — the human interaction — is completely, and utterly, free.
So, here we all are, 950 or more weeks older — I’m going to start lying to you now? Not likely.
Some years ago, I was in the middle of a family crisis with a loved one — it was all too close and I couldn’t think — so, I turned to these same people, some of them people whom I’d worked with for years, and here’s what I can tell you about what happened to me:
I wouldn’t have made it without them.
Now, here are those phone numbers I promised you:
• For the Port Townsend/East Jefferson area: 360-385-2552/1-800-801-0050.
• For the Port Angeles/Sequim area: 360-452-3221/1-800-801-0070.
• For the Forks/West End area: 360-374-9496/1-888-571-6559.
This won’t hurt. I promise.
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Mark Harvey is director of Clallam/Jefferson Senior Information & Assistance, which operates through the Olympic Area Agency on Aging. He is also a member of the Community Advocates for Rural Elders partnership. He can be reached at 360-452-3221 (Port Angeles-Sequim), 360-385-2552 (Jefferson County) or 360-374-9496 (West End), or by emailing harvemb@dshs.wa.gov.
