Becky Gilliam, Moderator
Peggy Reid, Resource Delegate

Workgroup Members:
Hattie Cunningham, Pearlmarie Goddard, Lynn Hastman, Shirley Lowrey, Robert Mohler, Asya Muhammad, Sally Nyburg, Bill Prather, Nancy Walfish and Mary Ann Wilson

INTRODUCTION

The members of the Services for Seniors Workgroup wanted to send a strong message to the organizers of the Imagine.Akron:2025 Program that Akron is a great place in which to live, work and retire! We need to recognize and enhance the programs that are working. Our comments below are only meant to improve an already great community. Because we feel so strongly about Akron, once we develop some of the ideas below, Akron should be marketed as a great place for seniors. The community gemstones that are all supported by the City – the parks, gardens, recreation facilities (including golf courses), Akron Roundtable, expressway system, the University of Akron, art museum, Don Drumm and Gallery, other area artists, the culture, historical restorations, Stan Hywet, Perkins Mansion, John Brown home, Soap Box Derby, Alcoholics Anonymous activities, Humane Society and other pet rescue groups, strong churches – synagogues – and temples, Quaker Square, economic development, good jobs – need to be promoted internally to local residents. Many citizens in the area take for granted what a great place Akron is.

Thank you for allowing us to have a voice in what Akron will become over the next 25 years!

[The following issues are listed in order of importance per written and oral survey results from the workgroup.]

I. Medical

Goal: Provide affordable, accessible and available health care services for all senior citizens.
[Privacy issues should not be overlooked in achieving this goal.]

Strategy: Develop a downtown one-stop wellness center where seniors could get all basic health needs addressed in one place, i.e. dental, audio-visual, feet, internal problems, mental health issues, physical therapy issues, skin, labs for blood work, pharmacies, other testing facilities, etc. [Akron General’s Wellness Center was used as an example only it should be geared toward seniors and should be centrally located.]

Resources:

1. Doctors and related health care workers recruited to these centers based on their interest in working with seniors. They should be willing to take pro bono cases.
2. Those recruited should commit to practice at the Center for a specified period of time and to take volunteer work.
3. Demographic data for Akron/Summit County to determine the best location for the first Senior Wellness Center and then satellite centers, as needed.
4. One of the benefits of this arrangement is the ability of the various specialties to share equipment and labs, and other resources.
5. Other resources: volunteers, planners, facilitators, physical equipment, knowledge, hi-tech networking, and transportation.

Other important ideas in this topic:

II. Communication

Goal: Better educate, inform and disseminate information to all citizens, especially seniors, regarding seniors’ programs and services available in Akron/Summit County.

Strategy:

1. Establish a deputy mayor’s office in charge of Services for Seniors. This office would serve as a clearinghouse for information – using both technological and traditional means of communication. Seniors Programs and activities must be researched so the information can be better disseminated and updated.

2. Initiate a special color-coded section in the front of the phone book (much like the Government Offices section) for all senior resources to be placed together in one location. Use bold, large print so it can be easily read, and do not use acronyms that seniors don’t understand. Use a senior citizen as an adviser when organizing the section. Be consistent in how information and organizations are described.

3. Local companies could pass out information packets to retirees when doing their final exit interview.

4. Market Akron as a place where seniors are important – if more seniors remain here to live or to vacation during the summer, it would be easier to develop programs as the customer base would be larger. Schedule Seniors’ events - recruit seniors’ events into the area.

5. Need to periodically monitor and reassess all strategies to assure that they are working to achieve the desired goals.

6. Need to develop a web page. As the baby boomers age, they will be expecting information on the Internet.

Resources: (for Strategy #1 – Deputy Mayor)

Akron Beacon Journal, Public library, businesses, volunteers, seniors’ family members, city offices, federal/state and private funding, grants, foundations, local groups—Lions, Kiwanis, etc., religious organizations, local organizations already existing that provide services for Seniors.

Other important ideas in this topic:

1. Create mentoring services with high school or college students or younger seniors.
2. Create senior rooms in libraries where information could be placed.
3. Have more public service announcements.
4. We need other ways of communicating besides audio and visual due to the number of seniors who have visual or hearing impairments.

III. Safety – (includes crime, fire, transportation, physical hazards, fraud)

Goal: To assure that all seniors in the Akron area live without fear (of issues that can be dealt with).

Strategy:

1. Create a structured program for keeping in touch through neighbors and family.

2. Create a mentoring program using students or younger seniors.

3. Educate seniors about multiculturalism.

4. Provide free or low cost legal counseling.

Resources

1. The Deputy Mayor’s Office (for Seniors) that we established in II above should be given the financial resources to create some of these programs.

2. The APD, AFD and paramedics should be involved and undergo awareness training for where seniors live, their activities, their routines, etc.

3. Special neighborhood unity programs to create public awareness. Senior citizens are a great source of untapped wisdom and their numbers and percentage of our total population grow exponentially each year.

4. Fraud is a big problem for the elderly. The Bar Association should sponsor a free clinic for advice to older seniors who no longer have the capacity to make sound financial decisions. Free consultations could also be offered on a variety of topics. Develop a phone-in service or scheduling appointments at seniors’ homes.

5. CPA’s go to seniors’ homes to assist with income taxes.

Thank you again for allowing us the have input on this most important project and we’ll be checking the phone book next year for the Seniors’ Section.

Lastly, the group members assembled a Seniors’ resource file that we will submit with this report. The contents are listed below:

1. Information from Metro Regional Transit Authority – services for Seniors (SCAT).
2. Handouts from the Area Agency on Aging: Elder Rights Attorney, Long Term Care Ombudsman Program, Programs and Services, copies of Senior Sentinel, Summit Co. Elder Abuse Prevention Coalition, other brochures on Financial and Medical issues.
3. Information on Assisted Living and Independent Living Facilities in the area.
4. Handout from the Social Security Administration on benefits.
5. Magazine, calendar and Aging Connection brochure from the Oho Department of Aging.
6. Senior Access magazine (Feb/March 2000) from Akron General Medical Center.
7. Internet information on OASIS.
8. INFOline brochure – also Senior Info Line Brochure.
9. Home with Help brochure [non-medical home care].
10. Telecommunications brochure [Americans with Disabilities Act].
11. Seniors’ Speakers Bureau [info].
12. Senior Citizens Against Crime pamphlet [Stark County Prosecuting Attorney].
13. Shared Living Facilities for Older Adults at Edwin Shaw brochure.
14. Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities – brochure of services.
15. Home Health Services from Senior Workers’ Action Program [SWAP] brochure.
16. Directory of Mental Health Services in Summit County.
17. Summa Health System’s Premier Years flyer.
18. Ohio Works First – flyer.
19. CAREtenders Senior Solutions – flyer.
20. Planning for an Aging Society from the American Planning Society.

Facilitator’s note: At our first session, there was a lengthy debate over ‘who is a senior’ and at what age does senior start. There was agreement that 70+ would meet the definition but as the age got younger, more members disagreed as to the starting point. While individuals in their 20’s may think that 55 is senior, those who are already there clearly disagree. The adage that old age gets older as you do surely fits.

Each week as the discussions became more specific, it became apparent that a cookie cutter approach for all seniors is not appropriate. Age is certainly a state of mind and there is a huge difference between the needs of most 55-year olds and most 95 year olds. Many young retirees are concerned about their aging parents and wonder what housing arrangements will accommodate two sets of seniors!