For The Herald Bulletin
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Justice for Seniors will be the topic of September’s Madison County Triad meeting. The meeting will be in conjunction with LifeStream Services Inc. This is an education program aimed at preventing seniors from becoming victims of abuse, neglect, exploitation or fraud. LifeStream will be showing a 15-minute film on Elder Justice.
In addition to the film, Triad will be inviting victim advocate representatives from Alternatives Inc. and several law enforcement agencies. Sheriff Ron Richardson, Indiana State Police troopers and Madison County Prosecutor Tom Broderick are also expected to attend. Several other law enforcement agencies will also be invited.
This meeting will be on Sept. 16, 10:30 a.m. at the Anderson Mounds Mall in the theater area. The meetings are open to the public, and there is no charge for attending. People who may have been victimized should attend this meeting so they can talk to representatives from a law enforcement agency to find out about their rights.
Prescription drugs
We would like to thank geriatric pharmacist Lisa O’Hara and her staff for the great presentation. Seniors heard what they needed to do to avoid suffering adverse effects from negative reactions to prescription drugs. The main message was having good communications with all your doctors. Every doctor needs to have a complete list of all your medications regardless whether it is your primary doctor or a specialist you are seeing.
Lisa also told us how she could save most seniors hundreds of dollars in their prescription drug costs. In addition to being a geriatric pharmacist, Lisa has a medication management business called Comprehensive Therapy Specialists.
Home health care cuts
Gov. Mitch Daniels has cut the CHOICE program by 15 percent. The CHOICE program allows seniors and people with disabilities to have home health care. By cutting this program, it increases the chances of more people being forced into nursing homes. The average costs per year of taking care of people in their homes is slightly more than $5,000, while it could cost $55,000 to $75,000 to take care of them in nursing homes. This is insane. As a senior advocate that has lobbied as an unpaid volunteer for several organizations for many years, I want you to know that Daniels is not the first governor to make this terrible mistake. Governors, all the way back to Evan Bayh, have tried to cut the CHOICE program.
We have had to fight for funds every year, even when the funds had been put in the budget by the legislature to go to those in need of these services. I have been trying to help a man from Summitville who has been trying to get his 92-year-old mother on the CHOICE Program for three and a half years.
You could wake up tomorrow and find out you or a loved one (a parent, spouse, child, etc.) could have been in car wreck, had a stroke, etc., regardless of age and desperately need these services. I know people of all ages trying to cope with living independently through home health care that could end up in nursing homes without that help.
Dennis Lanane is chairman of Madison County Triad. His column appears the first Sunday of each month. He can be reached at qparadigm@iquest.net.
