Respite Provider Stories
Saint Mary Magdalen Adult Center
Johnny Warren uses bright green paint to create a golf course with sand traps for his idea of heaven.
He sits at a table with several seniors at the St. Mary Magdalen Adult Center during a craft session. They were asked to paint their vision of heaven. The retired golf club repairman said he believes there will be a sunny course waiting for him someday. Warren started playing golf at 12 and worked for 36 years at the West Palm Beach Country Club. Several strokes forced his retirement and he hasn’t been able to golf because he can only use one hand.
And while he admits to missing his job, he said the adult center is “the best thing that ever happened to me.”
Warren enrolled in an adult center in West Palm Beach but said the employees were only there to earn a salary. When he moved to Lake Mary to live with his daughter, he resisted going to another senior center. Now, he looks forward to the three days a week he spends with friends at the Altamonte Springs center.
The Adult Center celebrated its 20th Anniversary in 2007. It is unique because seniors interact with children at the St. Mary Magdalen Catholic School and preschoolers at the Early Learning Center next door. The children play games, participate in arts and crafts projects and sing songs to the clients at the adult center.
“The intergenerational program makes everyone feel needed,” said Phyllis Fox, a registered nurse who is the director of the Adult Center. “The kids love to come and play bingo and the seniors love to interact with the children.”
Fox is one of two RNs on the staff, which includes employees and a team of volunteers who work from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. The Catholic Church started the center as part of their mission to care for seniors. Clients must apply to attend but do not have to be Catholic. The cost is $55 per day and includes a nutritious lunch and two snacks.
“It is a mission but run like a business,” said Fox, who added that the center is often recommended by Community Care for the Elderly, American Elder Care and Ever Care.
The center can accommodate 30 clients a day but averages about 20. The clients include stroke victims, those with Parkinson’s disease and seniors who have memory or mobility problems.
The seniors usually come for social reasons since their family members work and do not want to leave them home alone. Fox said their clients are past the independent stage but not ready for assisted living.
“We cater to a small window of opportunity and our purpose is to keep them in this window as long as possible,” Fox said.
The clients follow a routine of exercise and group activities throughout the day. The schedule varies but often includes music and drama therapy, current events from the newspaper and spiritual programs such as Mass and the reciting the Rosary.
Dick Stevens, 86, comes five days a week. He said he likes to joke with the school children who visit every other day. The retired efficiency expert who worked in civil service at Lawson Air Field, Fort Benning, Ga. looks forward to attending the center, according to his daughter-in-law, Sandy Stevens.
Rich and Sandy Stevens moved Dick into their Altamonte Springs home after they realized he was having memory problems. They tried another adult program but found that he was sitting in a chair all day.
“We are so blessed that he has found a place that has become his own community,” Sandy Stevens said. “He is engaged there and they treat him with respect and dignity.”
The Adult Center is funded through St. Mary Magdalen Church and scholarships are available. For more information, go to http://stmarymagdalen.org/Ministries/Senior/AdultCenter.htm or call 407-831-9630.
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Camp Boggy Creek
A gang of campers with blue spray-painted hair clap rhythmically as they chant about the benefits of being in the blue group. A group of yellow-faced kids out shout them with the advantages of belonging to the yellow lemons.
The cheers are not just a ruse to keep the campers at Boggy Creek busy. The bonding continues in the Cracker-style dining hall, the spacious theater or on the front porch of the pinewood cabins of this camp that caters to seriously ill children.
Celebrate life is the theme that permeates every activity from horseback riding through palmetto-lined trails in the Seminole State Forest to screaming down the 300-foot-long zip line.
Medical equipment is camouflaged by feather boas, while children with cancer are not ashamed to bear their bald heads as badges of courage. The scenic camp that looks more like a theme park is a place for children to forget about their illnesses and regain a sense of normalcy for a week.
Some of the campers receive dialysis; others have feeding ports or need mobile ventilators to breath in the wheelchair-accessible pool. During nine weeks each summer, the camp hosts children from 7 to 16 with different illnesses including Spina Bifida, AIDS and Sickle Cell anemia. Fall and spring weekends are booked with families so everyone can take a break from routine medical visits.
A staff of doctors, nurses and volunteers make sure that each child’s medical needs are taken care while counselors work on a 1 to 2 ratio catering to each camper’s individual tastes.
Camp Boggy Creek is a member of The Association of Hole In The Wall Camps, where more than 100,000 seriously ill children have attended 13 camps around the world free of charge since the first was built in 1988. The non-profit organization depends solely on charitable contributions and was the brainchild of actor Paul Newman.
The 232-acre camp opened 11 years ago and boasts facilities donated by Universal Studios, Sea World and Walt Disney World. It relies on the generosity of donors to meet the $4 million a year budget. The medical office called Patch was built with donations from pharmaceutical companies. Volunteers don hats and make invitations for a private tea party at Patch for one of the campers who is upset about missing out on some of the day’s activities.
“There’s a different kind of affection here at camp,” said Kimmy Lamborn, a 26-year-old counselor who has worked at Boggy Creek for six years. “You can leave camp but the camp never leaves you.”
It may be the same type of affection as the “catch, kiss and release” rule for fishing at Whit Palmer Lake, where paddle boats line up along a dock to cart fishermen to the middle of the lake. That love can mostly be found in the hugs that are shared spontaneously between campers and volunteers whether they are creating a work of art or learning to shoot a bow and arrow.
One little girl summed up her experience the best by saying that no one made fun of her at Camp Boggy Creek. The camp is open to any child with a life-threatening illness. For more information, go to www.boggycreek.org.
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Special Population
Little thingsmake Ruthanne Zawacki happy.
She likes the freedom of making her own schedule, the opportunity to socialize with friends and fit in with a group.
These basic human needs are not always accessible to people like Zawicki, who is mentally challenged. But she has a variety of options thanks to the City of Altamonte Springs Special Community Services and the Advisory Board for the Disabled, Inc.
The 51-year-old can participate in a host of activities including bowling, dancing, field trips and training for Special Olympics. The city-sponsored events are open to mentally or physically challenged adults ages 13 and older. Most are offered weekly at a nominal fee of $1.
Zawacki’s parents and brother have died and her only sister has a family of her own in Apopka. Health problems prevent her from working so she relies on the social network she has found through the city-sponsored events.
She laced up her bowling shoes recently to practice for the Special Olympics county qualifying competition. Zawacki said she loves to bowl but the best part is socializing with friends.
“It (bowling) gives you exercise, keeps you limber and keeps your mind straight,” Zawacki said. “I feel energized when I come here and upbeat when I go home.”
About 45 Special Population Bowlers show up from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. each Monday and pay $1.50 per game including shoe rental. The energy is contagious as each bowler is greeted with hugs and high fives from teammates.
Joanne Counelis, 55, proudly reports that her best score was a 246. She takes a bus from her Lake Mary home, where she lives with her mother and sister, to practice the sport she has played for the past 20 years. The athletic 55-year-old has the best average – 141- of the group and also participates in swimming, walk racing and cheerleading at Special Olympics.
She meticulously counts each step on her five-step approach, kisses the red and green bowling bowl and heaves it down the center lane. Only eight pins go down, but Counelis jumps two feet off the wooden floor and flexes her muscles to show her elation.
Ranwa Nin El-Khoury, special needs activities coordinator, said the benefits of the Special Population programs go beyond exercise and socialization. Speech and language improve because many of the participants often are exposed only to family members so the group activities force them to communicate with the public.
In addition to bowling, the city sponsors Special Needs Belly Dancing at 6:30 p.m. on fourth Wednesday of the month at Westmonte Park. The dancers practice for a performance at the end of the series. Themed Night Bird Dances are held one Friday a month from 7 to 9 p.m. at Westmonte Park with refreshments and admission for $1.
Thursday Night Out is a weekly get together from 7 to 9 p.m. at Westmonte Park with various themes including Craft Night, Karaoke Night and Game Night.
The Saturday Time Out for Parents or STOP gives caregivers a break from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. monthly. The $1 per person cost includes transportation to field trips that include a variety of venues such as Walt Disney World, The Strawberry Festival, Barberville and Boggy Creek Airboat Rides.
“The trips give parents a break and also provide educational, historical and fun opportunities for participants,” said El-Khoury, whose younger brother has Down’s syndrome.
El-Khoury said the activities are funded through the City of Altamonte Springs, the Advisory Board for the Disabled and community donations. For more information about, go to www.altamonte.org/department/leisure/article.asp?ACTION=view&ID=110.
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Camp Challenge
Rebecca Vasey makes friends easily.
She loves to chat and never forgets a name. Each summer she meets old friends and makes new at Easter Seals Camp Challenge.
It is the 23rd year that Rebecca has spent a week in the wooded 63-acre camp in Sorrento.
Whether she is participating in the ropes challenge or swimming in the wheelchair accessible pool, Rebecca sings praise of the camp that gives her and her parents a break each summer.
“I look forward to this every year, said Rebecca, 38, who suffers from cerebral palsy.
Rebecca was born with the neurological disorder that left her a spastic quadriplegic. She lives with her parents in Tampa and works each day greeting customers at the family’s antique shop. The week at camp is a break from her routine as well as a week of respite for her parents.
Respite is the number one need voiced by caregivers but few have the funds to pay for the service. The Easter Seals camp offers respite weekends from August through May and six-day respite holiday sessions around Christmas and Easter.
The cost of a six-day session is $1,272 but the camper pays only $600 and the rest is made up through donations to Easter Seals. The charge for campers for the three-day session is $300. The camp also offers scholarships to qualifying families.
Applicants must be six years of age or older and have a physical and or mild cognitive disability. There is a full-time nursing staff at the camp along with counselors who work on a one-to-three ratio.
Founded in 1961, Camp Challenge is the state’s only camp designed for children and adults with disabilities. The air conditioned cottages include a roll-in shower and there is more than a half a mile of paved nature walk for wheelchairs to negotiate. The camp also includes an arts and crafts center, nature corral and petting zoo, archery and rifle range, an open-air pavilion for games and a universal high ropes course.
John Hazelton, director of camping and recreation, said the respite camps are more laid back than the weekly summer camps. He said 93 percent of the campers are in wheelchairs and require intensive care to get up, dressed and ready for camp activities. The respite camps usually have smaller groups and more relaxation time.
“It is a shame that more people don’t take advantage of our respite programs but cost is always an issue for caregivers,” Hazelton said. “Very few parents actually go away on vacation while their child is at camp. Most say they just go home and sleep or work on projects that otherwise would not get done.”
For more information on Camp Challenge, go to www.fl.easterseals.com or call 352-383-4711, ext. 201.
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Camp Thunderbird
Each summer, Eric Pomeranz looks forward to meeting people from other countries at Camp Thunderbird, where the staff is a United Nations mix of cultures.
The 43-year-old Pizza Hut cook has been attending the Apopka camp for children and adults with disabilities since 1993. He said the camp is not only a break from the routine but a chance to get to know people from around the world.
Nearly 65 percent of the 53 Camp Thunderbird staffers are an eclectic blend from 11 different countries. Rosa Figueroa, coordinator of the camp, said counselors from the United States and around the world are hired because of their commitment to working with people with disabilities. The camaraderie of the staff helped Camp Thunderbird win the International Peace Award for 2004 from Camp America.
The 19-acre camp located in Wekiva Springs State Park in Apopka was originally opened in 1969 by parents from the Sertoma Club. Quest, Inc. took it over management in 1985. Quest is a non-profit that offers vocational training, group homes and independent living opportunities for more than 1,000 people with disabilities in Orange, Seminole, Osceola and Hillsborough counties.
From June through August, campers from 5 to 80 years of age participate in traditional camp activities like swimming, arts and crafts, nature trails, sports and sing-alongs around a campfire. The staff to camper ratio is 4-1 and exceptions are made for 1-1 care. There is 24-hour nursing supervision, an on-site infirmary, certified lifeguards and nutritional meals cooked in the spacious knotty pine kitchen.
The six- and 12-day overnight retreats are a respite for both caregivers and guardians. The socialization and challenges of camp activities foster independence and self-sufficiency.
“The kids need to get away as much as the parents,” said Figueroa. “Many of these families don’t get to make vacation plans that some take for granted. For parents with special needs children, a trip to the grocery or mall is a challenge."
The shady camp nestled amid pines and stately oaks has become a summer refuge for many of the campers, who have an 80 percent return rate, according to Figueroa.
Rhonda Sloan said Camp Thunderbird was the first step toward independence for her daughter, Tanya Dickens, who is mentally challenged. Dickens, 36, lives in he own apartment today but the first time she went to camp 10 years ago she took her purple stuffed dinosaur Barney.
“Camp allowed her to become more independent and self-sufficient,” Sloan said. “It allowed time away from people who were always doing things for her and helped her realize all the things she could do for herself.”
The camp has room for 80 participants who sleep in cabins named after Florida native species. The cost ranges from $600 for the six-day session to $1,200 for 12 days of camping. Through donations and fundraising, Camp Thunderbird gave 140 scholarships during the 2007 summer to those who could not afford the fee.
“Each year there is more of a need and less funds available,” said Figueroa, who added that her goal is to never turn anyone away due to a lack of funds to pay for camp.
For more information on Camp Thunderbird, call 407-889-8088 or go to www.questinc.org/camp.htm.
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Community Care Team
Faith-based organizations are forming volunteer teams to provide services to the frail, elderly, ill or injured to help them remain living safely in their own homes.
Community Care Teams offer services such as transportation to medical appointments or to the grocery and home-cooked meals for a short term during illness or injury. The volunteers visit the homebound and give respite or short breaks to caregivers. The program's dual mission is to provide assistance for those who have no support system and give busy people a way to volunteer in their community.
A volunteer has visited Rosemary Oyler weekly since she lost her sight to macular degeneration in 2000. The 85-year-old said the hardest part of her disability was losing her freedom when she could no longer drive. She lives on her own but needs the volunteers to take her to the grocery, run errands or visit the library to check out talking books.
“They (volunteers) are worth their weight in gold,” said the retired teacher. “You lose one thing but gain another. I found out how kind people are.”
The volunteers are from “Family, Friends and Chicken Soup,” a Community Care Team that started in 1996 at St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church in Winter Park. The team of more than 120 volunteers takes turns caring for members of their parish.
The free assistance helps ease the burden on social services, while allowing people to get involved with their community.
“Government and social service agencies cannot do it all,” said Pegge Stickel, who founded the Community Care Team concept and has spread it to 11 Central Florida faith communities. “Volunteers must pick up the slack.”
The number of people needing care will only rise as Baby Boomers age. About a quarter of Florida’s population is 65 or older now and that number is expected to increase to 33 percent by 2025, according a University of Florida Population Study.
Many adult children are becoming caregivers for elderly family members while trying to raise their own children and work outside the home. There are large numbers that do not meet the criteria for government-sponsored social services because of their incomes, but cannot afford to pay for transportation or services.
Stickel empathizes with the need for help during a crisis. When her mother was diagnosed with cancer 20 years ago, Stickel was working in advertising and marketing for Proctor & Gamble in Cincinnati. She said it was difficult taking time off work to pick up her mother and take her to radiation treatments during her busy work week.
“It was a very stressful time and difficult as a caregiver to find resources to help,” she said.
When she saw a notice in her church bulletin about starting a Community Care Team, she was certain the ministry was something she was called to do.
Stickel used her expertise to form a business plan so the organization would run like a corporation. She formed a three-tier system that includes a case worker who assesses the care recipient’s needs, a coordinator who matches volunteers with recipients and a broad base of volunteers to fulfill the needs. The idea spreads responsibilities so no volunteer is overburdened.
The teams work best in suburban communities where there are a mix of stay-at-home moms, retirees and workers with flexible schedules.
Retired engineer John Daly said he likes volunteering with Family, Friends and Chicken Soup because he is not committed to a day and time each week but can fit the assignment into his schedule. He added that he has made some great friends and broadened his knowledge during his six years of service.
Daly said he learned about musical notes from a former engineer and musical composer who was blinded by an accident. He has read scientific articles, researched online studies on optic nerve repair and has even helped the musician compose music by writing down notes on a computer program.
Family, Friends and Chicken Soup was so successful that Stickel was asked to start a Community Care Team at First United Methodist Church in Winter Park in 2003. A year later, she received a grant from the Winter Park Health Foundation and ran a Community Care Team training program through Seniors First, a non-profit that meets the needs of Central Florida seniors. Now there are Community Care Teams in 11 faith communities representing Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans, Jews and Catholics.
“My dream is to find funding and train more faith communities to start Community Care Teams so no one would ever go without services,” Stickel said.
For more information on starting a Community Care Team, call Pegge Stickel at 407-629-9642 or email at pstickelcct@aol.com.
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Conductive Education Center of Orlando
Vicki and Joe Raymond consider themselves fortunate.
They have the money to pay for a private nurse or babysitter for Joseph. Their 11-year-old suffers from cerebral palsy, can only make a few sounds and uses a wheelchair to get around.
Their situation is the exception. CP ranks among the most costly congenital conditions in the world to manage effectively. Joseph is one of an estimated 800,000 children and adults in the United States that are living with one or more of the symptoms of the neurological disorder, according to The United Cerebral Palsy Foundation. Their brains are damaged at birth, usually because of a temporary lack of oxygen. CP breaks the connection between mind and muscle.
Many parents with a disabled child divorce and others live on one income so that one parent can stay home with the child. The Raymonds know how difficult it is to raise Joseph along with two older daughters. And they have channeled their resources into a private school to help disabled children called the Conductive Education Center of Orlando.
Conductive Education was founded in Hungary and is based on the adaptive powers of the brain and neurological system. It helps students realize self-reliance through repetition of tasks that allow the brain to find new ways to send messages to various muscle groups. Vicki Raymond’s parents are Hungarian and she heard about the technique after Joseph was diagnosed. The family brought Alexandra Gradi, a conductor trained in Conductive Education at the PETO Institute in Hungary, to Orlando to start the school.
Each child in the classes, which are limited to five students, has an assistant who helps the student follow instructions from the conductor. The school’s goal is to access each student’s educational and physical needs and help them achieve movements like sitting, standing, walking and self feeding.
Joseph was one of five students who started at the school in 2001 when it held a summer camp at Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Winter Park. As the school grew, it moved to a bigger building and now has 25 students.
“We started this school because we wanted something better for our son,” said Raymond, who added they were not impressed with the local public schools system that kept their child in a wheelchair all day. “This helps his muscles, body and mind stay sharp.”
For more information on the Conductive Education Center, go to www.cecfl.org or call 407-671-4687.
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Day Break
A flutist is playing a lively rendition of “Alexander’s Rag Time Band” while a group of adults hum to the music.
“Name that tune,” says Kendall Holysz, a music therapist who visits Easter Seals Day Break Adult Day Services monthly.
A man in the front row shouts out the song title amid a round of applause from the rest of the group. Holysz asks the nickname for Alexander and several respond by calling out Alex.
The session helps jog memories for the dozen clients who attend the Winter Park center. Day Break is an alternative to assisted living or nursing home placement for many of the adults, who are recovering from a stroke or suffer from Alzheimer’s disease or dementia.
Day Break is a refuge for the adults as well as a respite for caregivers. The spacious facility includes a fitness room, hair care salon, a secure outdoor patio and dining room. Trained staffers offer an assortment of educational and social activities to stimulate the mind and enrich the lives of their clients.
Many caregivers leave their loved ones five days a week while they work. The service allows time to tend to their personal or family needs while their loved ones are in a safe and stimulating environment.
The center is open from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. The cost is $56 a day or $266 a week. Day Break is licensed by the State of Florida Health Care Administration.
For more information on Day Break, call 407-629-7881.
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FOCUS
Denise Sharp raised a son with cerebral palsy and has buried a daughter with brain cancer. The journey has created a passion for people with disabilities and a purpose in her life.
The former director of a day care center opened FOCUS (Fulfilling Our Community, Uplifting Students) to give parents a break from the constant demands of caring for a sick or disabled child. FOCUS is housed at the non-denominational Spirit of Truth Worship Ministries in Lake Mary and accepts children and adults each weekday afternoon and the second and fourth Saturday of the month. The center provides one-on-one tutoring, arts and crafts, games, music and an opportunity to socialize.
Sharp heard a calling from God to start FOCUS a year ago. Six months later, she had filled out all the necessary paperwork and her pastor agreed to giver her space for the respite center, which opened in August 2007.
She said the center is especially needed in Seminole County which has few after-school options for children with disabilities. Sharp said she knows the importance of respite for parents who work or just need a break from the constant role of caregiving.
Sharp was just 19 when her son, Shanandiaz, was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at six months of age. He was born prematurely at 32 weeks, had a brain hemorrage and needed two blood transfusions. Sharp noticed that her son was not developing like other children. His muscles were rigid, his feet were turned in the wrong direction and he drooled constantly.
Doctors told Sharp her baby would never walk or talk.
Four years later, Sharp's daughter, Qumique, was just two when she was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor. She battled the disease for four years before she died.
"I had to grow up fast," Sharp said.
The next four years were filled with doctor visits, hospital stays and therapy sessions for both children. There were many nights that Sharp never went to sleep but carried on with the purpose of making life better for her two children. A supportive husband and devoted family helped her through the tough times.
Sharp never asked "why me?" She said she treasured the children God had given her and the patience, nurturing and loving heart it took to manage their care. She calls Shanandiaz her "miracle child" because he defied the doctors' prognosis. He walks, talks and will graduate from high school this year.
"The experience built a heart for me to reach out to others who have children with a disability or terminal illness," she said. "It taught me that all children are unique in their own way and designed for a purpose."
FOCUS has been a lifesaver for Jeannie Forthuber, whose 19-year-old son, Jonathon, has cerebral palsy. The family liason at the Toni Jennings Exceptional Education Institute was driving from her job at the University of Central Florida to Winter Springs High School to pick up her son and drop him off at home before driving back to work. She had previosly paid college students to stay with Jonathon until she got home from work.
"It (FOCUS) has been absolutely wonderful," Forthuber said. "Jonathon loves the social interaction. They read every afternoon, they have him walking in his walker and he's even learned to shoot pool."
Carolyn Crespo said her son enjoys attending FOCUS because of Sharp's enthusiasm. Justin, 12, has autism and usually attends the Saturday sessions.
"She (Sharp) is so good with the children," Crespo said. "Justin was deciding who to invite to his birthday party and Denise was the first name on the list."
Sharp's team at FOCUS includes Claudia Holloway, an exceptional education teacher who retired after working with special needs students for 30 years. To help fund parenting classes, field trips and a computer resource center, Sharp started a non-profit called Uniquely Designed Children's Resource Foundation Center. She hopes to have her own building someday.
FOCUS charges $10 an hour for afternoon care from 2 to 6 p.m. each weekday and $60 for Saturday Enrichment from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the second and fourth Saturday of each month.
"We don't do it for the money but charge to cover expenses," Sharp said. "We do it for the parents and our community."
For more information on FOCUS, call 407-323-1113.
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Freedom Ride
Kimberly Jacks can't walk but with the help of a lift can sit atop a horse and guide it to trot around an obstacle course of barriers.
Jacks is accustomed to obstacles. She is blind and confined to a wheelchair because of cerebral palsy. But the 29-year-old said she feels no impediments when she is riding the honey-colored mare at Freedom Ride, an Orlando non-profit that offers therapeutic riding lessons.
"The improvements have been amazing," said Kimberly's mother, Teresa Breidenbach. "She has gotten stronger, has more endurance and self-confidence."
When Kimberly started riding at age eight, she had to sit with a rider to keep her balance. The twice-a-week lessons have strenthened her pelvis, trunk and upper body and now she can manuever the horse on her own with the help of an instructor who walks beside her.
Freedom Ride was started in 1998 by Anne Galliher, who was inspired after seeing how a horse helped her best friend regain strength and coordination after major surgery. The program started at Springdale Farm in Longwood, with a handful of volunteers, two riders and borrowed horses and equipment.
Today, Freedom Ride has a dozen horses and about 200 volunteers that provide therapeutic riding lessons at Orlando's Trotters Park to more than 100 people with disabilities each week. It has touched the lives of children and adults with many types of disabilities including muscular dystrophy, multiple scleroisis, autism, mental retardation, attention deficit disorder, deafness, blindness and many emotional and learning disabilities.
The horses offer a way to teach far more than riding, according to Linda Waszczak, executive director. The ability to control a horse as well as one's own body inspires self-confidence, responsibility and teamwork.
"Horseback riding is a motivating factor and therapy can be taught in a much different way than in a clinical setting," she said.
The rhythmic side-to-side movement of horseback riding gently moves the rider's body in a manner similar to a human gait and helps improve flexibility, balance and muscle strength. Those that are able help muck stalls and groom the horses. Stretching and grooming exercises increase control and range of motion.
Freedom Ride is nationally accredited by the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association (NARHA). All instructors are certified by NARHA.
It takes a special horse that is patient, gentle and doesn't startle easily. The horses work only one or two lessons each day since it is tough to handle the often unbalanced weight of the riders, said Angela Waszczak, Linda's daughter and one of the certified instuctors. The horses include thoroughbreds, quarter horses, an Arabian cross and a Shetland Welsh pony that have all been donated to the program.
The half hour riding lessons are offered in sessions at a cost $30 for a group lesson or $40 for private. Financial assistance is available for riders that cannot afford the fee. Freedom Ride also offers athlete training for Special Olympics equestrian events.
For more information go to www.freedomride.com or call 407-293-0411.
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Granny Nannies
Frustrated by the lack of quality health care options for his grandmother, Rob Hodgson founded a home care agency to ensure his 87-year-old grandmother could remain in the comfort of her home.
Esther Dowling retired to Florida and her family lived out of state. Hodgson discovered there were plenty of nursing homes in Central Florida but few choices for reliable home care. The former pharmaceutical sales representative left his job in New Hampshire and moved to Florida to launch Granny Nannies to fill the void.
Granny Nannies has grown from a small office opened in 1990 to an agency that has spread to four states with three corporate locations and 11 franchises. The company sends certified nursing aides (CNA) or home health aides (HHA) to meet the client’s needs for a few hours or around the clock.
The service caters to people of all ages including patients with cancer, those recovering from surgery, people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease or brain injuries or new mothers who need help after a baby’s birth.
The aides provide basic home and health services such as preparing meals, light housekeeping and taking clients to doctor’s appointments or shopping. They also can dress, feed and bathe patients that need total care.
All caregivers are thoroughly screened through checks of their credentials, criminal background and references. Granny Nannies are bonded and insured and participate with in-service training to keep their skills current. Care managers assess the quality of care and the patient's condition and supervisors are on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week to respond to emergency needs.
“Nursing homes are not for everybody,” said Diane Sanders, operations manager for Granny Nannies. “Most people want to stay in their own homes. We provide services that allow people to stay in familiar surroundings for as long as they are able.”
Sanders said families benefit because they plan the care they need around their own schedules. Also, they can choose a caregiver that works best with their family routine.
“Many of our caregivers form a bond and they become like a member of the family,” said Janine Seidel, a case manager. “The one-on-one care helps people live longer.”
The rates for Granny Nannies vary according to the type of services needed but range from $12.50 to $16.50 an hour. The lower rate applies to families that use caregivers for six hours a day or 30 hours each week. Granny Nannies accept long-term care and worker’s compensation insurance and is a Med-waiver provider.
The concept worked well for Esther Dowling, who remained in her own home with help from Granny Nannies until she died at the age of 104.
For more information on Granny Nannies, call 1-800-316-2669 or go to www.grannynannies.com.
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Bob Sanger Helps Hospice
Bob Sanger is not one to sit idle.
“I’ve volunteered all my life and have to keep busy,” said Sanger, a retired division controller for Chiquita who worked in Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Washington D.C. “I get a lot of satisfaction from it.”
He volunteers two days a week to sit with Hospice patients so their caregivers can take a break. His volunteer duties also include 24 years helping people prepare their tax forms for AARP and 14 years working in the box office of The Little Theater. He has been active in Big Brothers Big Sisters and shared his talents as a Master Gardner.
Sanger was named the 2007 Outstanding Patient Care Volunteer by Hospice of the Comforter for his willingness to give respite and befriend families. The Altamonte Springs non profit provides services that help people with incurable illnesses remain at home.
His association with Hospice began when his wife was dying of lung cancer. He cared for her for two years and has empathy for families in the same situation. He said it is not awkward for him to get to know strangers.
“If it gets quiet, I just start talking about myself,” he said.
His wife died in 1993 and Sanger began volunteering for Hospice in Sebring before moving to Chuluota 10 years ago.
“I didn’t want to sit around the house and feel sorry for myself,” Sanger said.
Sanger knows that a break can revive and refresh the caregiver’s spirit. The respite volunteers stay from one to four hours but Sanger often stays as long as the family needs help, said Susan Brydon, volunteer coordinator for Hospice of the Comforter. He offered to come back on Sundays for one family who needed the care to attend church.
“He is a priceless treasure bringing encouragement, compassion, devotion and most of all his precious time to the families that he serves,” Bryden said. “He is very thorough, reliable and a comforting presence to our patients and their families.”
Sanger who looks much younger than his 82 years, often brings library books and fresh-cut roses from his lakeside backyard to patients. His Spanish comes in handy when Hospice needs a bilingual volunteer.
During his dozen years with Hospice, Sanger has visited more than 100 patients. He manages to see up to five patients a week, depending on the need. Each one is unique, he said.
The 82-year-old is usually paired with male patients but occasionally gets assigned to a female. He asked one woman if she would prefer a male and she replied that he was fine as long as he behaved himself. They became great friends.
Sanger often keeps in touch with families after the patient dies. He brought an amaryllis to offer condolences to a woman who told him whenever it blooms she thinks of her husband.
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Isaiah Foundation
A nurse who traveled through the rural backroads of Florida providing care for handicapped children often cried between home visits because of the lack of resources available to families that provide constant nurturing for their disabled family members.
Penny Phares discovered the families were under a great deal of stress from the constant demands of being on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Many of the marriages were troubled because parents never took time for themselves. And siblings often suffered because the disabled child became the center of attention.
A Bible passage from Isaiah turned those tears into triumph when Phares read:
"Then your light shall break forth like the morning, Your healing shall spring forth speedily if you extend your soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul. Then your light shall dawn in the darkness and your darkness shall be as the noon day."
The child and adolescent psychiatric nurse was convinced that God was speaking to her about providing some relief to those families. She and her husband and six-year-old son had just settled in Yankeetown, a small city near the Gulf Coast. They had limited resources but their idea to provide respite care caught on with the community that helped found the Isaiah Foundation in 1984.
Phares knew first hand how a rest or short vacation could refresh the family. She and her husband, Ray, started caring for a handicapped child in their home on weekends to give the family a break.
"The very difficult task of feeding, diapering, suctioning and watching the clear blue eyes of this sweet face as he worked to draw each breath and swallow each bite was overwhelming," she said.
Phares wondered how families could deal with the daily tasks and feel the emotions every day of the week for years. She started the foundation to provide relief to the overworked families.
The Isaiah Foundation did a needs assessment in 1989 that found that there were 350 families that would benefit from respite care in a 60-mile radius. To meet the demand, Phares decided to train caregivers to go to the families and care for the children in their own homes.
Care is provided for a minimum three hours or for an extended overnight, weekend, or weeklong stay in the caregivers home or in the family home. Families may receive the equivalent of a maximum of 14 respite days per year. The family pays the caregiver on a sliding scale fee and the Isaiah Foundation subsidizes the rest of the cost of care. Since its inception, the foundation's caregivers have provided thousands of hours of respite care to families in Marion, Citrus and Hernando counties.
The foundation is funded through United Way, local churches and donations from individuals and businesses. The donations pay for caregiver training and help subsidize the costs of respite care. Many of the families who receive services do not qualify for state or federal programs.
"We take the people who fall through the cracks," said Dorothy Duran, executive director of Isaiah Foundation. "We see a lot of hurting families who are in need."
Many of the families are reluctant to leave their helpless child with a stranger and many of the trusted relatives are afraid because the care is often technical, Phares said. She added that many parents have a hard time letting go of their caregiver role and some are fearful of allowing a predator into their home.
The foundation's caregivers have all had background checks and completed an 18-hour caregiver training course. They include registered nurses, exceptional education teachers and people that have a knack for caring for disabled children. The caregivers often become like members of the family as they provide nurturing and care. The respite allows families to keep their disabled family members in their own home and reduces the need for institutionalization.
The foundation's goal is to serve the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of the physically dependent child by giving the family an opportunity to occasionally retreat from the heavy obligations of continuous care. Since most of the children are life-long dependent upon others for their basic needs of food, shelter, and other daily routine care, many families are faced with the responsibility of providing this love and care for an extended time. The Isaiah Foundation helps shoulder some of the families burdens by providing relief.
The Isaiah Foundation strives to nurture both body and spirit, and to provide comfort in suffering and disability. By recognizing that the entire family is affected by the problems of children, the foundation has opened Isaiah's Place which offers professional counseling and play therapy to work through difficulties stemming from trauma, abuse, divorce or death. The services are offered to families with children from birth to 11 years of age that have two or more of the following criteria: trauma before the age of three; a single-parent household, living at poverty level or less; poor school performance due to behavior problems, reports of sexual abuse, history of domestic violence and physical or mental disability.
To find out more about Isaiah Foundation, go to www.isaiahfoundation.org.
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Florida Kinship Center
Cynthia Romano thought her child-rearing days were over when a family crisis thrust her into the role of caretaker for her three grandchildren.
She had lost her job, was in the midst of a divorce and her house was in foreclosure – not the best time to add the demands of a new generation to the mix.
Yet, Romano said she had no choice. Her daughter was a single mother, who suffers from bipolar disorder and became addicted to drugs. Romano had to provide a safety net for the children.
“I got to the point that I was distressed, overwhelmed and depressed,” said Romano, 49. “Raising the children was not easy and economically difficult.”
Then the Tampa grandmother called the Florida Kinship Center’s Warmline, an emotional support, information and referral service for relative caregivers. The center, based at the University of South Florida, helped her face the financial, emotional and legal challenges of raising her grandchildren.
The Kinship Center linked Romano to a support group where she learned there were others who shared her predicament. They helped her apply for relative care funding and find affordable housing. The children were enrolled in Traverse, a nine-month therapeutic horseback riding program that helps children recover from trauma and loss.
“I thought I was all alone before I went to the support group,” Romano said. “I had feelings about where did I go wrong with my daughter. I learned they were normal feelings and I was not helping my daughter but enabling her.”
Romano is one of more than 345,000 relatives caring for children in Florida, according to the 2000 U. S. Census data. More than six million children - approximately 1 in 12 - are living in households headed by grandparents or other relatives in the United States.
The Florida Kinship Center was founded in 1998 to meet the needs of the growing relative caregiver population. It provides education and resources to deal with grief and loss, handle conflicts with biological parents and help children succeed in school.
Romano took a job as a Warmline operator and works 20 hours a week listening to caregiver stories and offering emotional support and information.
She credits the Kinship Center with helping her family survive the ordeal. The children, ages 14, 10 and 7 are doing well in school. Her daughter has been through rehabilitation and the two youngest children live with their mother now. The oldest has decided to stay with her grandmother but sees her mother often.
“The children are blessed,” Romano said. “Now they have two mothers.”
The Florida Kinship Center’s Warmline (800-640-6444) is staffed from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. from Monday through Friday and messages may be left seven days a week. To contact the center, call 813-974-1328 or go to www.flkin.usf.edu.
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Labyrinth
Walking the meandering but purposeful path of a labyrinth can bring calm and renewal to caregivers who need a break from the constant demands of their jobs.
The ancient winding pattern that represents life’s twists and turns has been used as a stress relief since the Middle Ages. The walk has been described as a path of prayer, a walking meditation, a crucible of change, a watering hole for the spirit and a mirror of the soul.
The Mind/Body/Spirit Center at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center Orlando offers a class on the history and power of labyrinths. Participants are given instructions on how to walk the labyrinth in the Meditation Plaza on the fourth floor of the hospital.
The 36-foot-wide circle is a replica of a labyrinth designed in 1220 on the floor of the Chartres Cathedral of Notre Dame in Chartres, France. It was used as a pilgrimage during an era when it was too costly and dangerous to journey to Jerusalem.
Labyrinths have witnessed a revival worldwide since the 1990s. The circular paths have been used to console the grieving, quiet the mind and help people find balance and insight in a hectic world.
Many cultures and faith traditions have used labyrinths to address the basic questions of life: meaning and purpose, love and loss, life and death and the challenge of life relationships.
“Labyrinths are a powerful healing tool,” said Jeanne Miller-Clark, manager of the Mind/Body/Spirit Center. “The 11 circles offer a sacred invitation to stop and look at life and let go of burdens.”
Miller-Clark brought the first Central Florida labyrinth to Orlando Regional South Seminole Hospital in Longwood in 1998. It was so popular that Orlando Regional Healthcare decided to build the concrete and pebble labyrinth at M.D. Anderson-Orlando. It is open to the public daily from 7 a.m. to dusk and used by patients, families and staff.
A single path that winds between four quadrants is the entrance and exit to the labyrinth. There are three phases to the walk. The first is releasing concerns or asking a question. Then the walker arrives at the center, a place of contemplation and illumination to listen to an inner voice. The walk back to the beginning is a chance to claim insights that can be used to reflect on life.
Miller-Clark said people experience a variety of emotions that range from tears to quiet solitude to dancing during the walk that takes about 20 minutes and covers a third of a mile. Family members have used it to come to a resolution about a dying relative, staffers find it restorative after a hectic day and patients use it for relaxation.
A study by Miller-Clark found that walking the curved paths increased patients’ hope, decreased stress and equalized their blood pressure.
Dr. Bima Shah said she felt energy in the form of vibrations when she walked the labyrinth before volunteering at the hospital. She said she left with a feeling of peacefulness before visiting patients to give Reiki, a method of stress reduction and relaxation that promotes healing. “It is a reminder that although we don’t know where the paths of our life will take us, our journey has peace and meaning,” wrote one visitor in the comment book following her walk.
The M.D. Anderson-Orlando labyrinth is one of 46 in Florida, according to the World-Wide Labyrinth Locator, Veriditas, and The Labyrinth Society. A list of their locations can be found online at www.veriditas.labyrinthsociety.org.
Walking the Labyrinth is just one of several healing classes offered at the Mind/Body/Spirit Center in Orlando. For more information, call the center at 321-841-8639.
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Lake Morton Senior Center
A drop-in center tucked into a Lakeland strip mall has become a home away from home where seniors share meals, socialize and exercise.
The Lake Morton Senior Center is the only place in Lakeland where seniors can get together at no cost to participate in a variety of activities. The program is designed to support seniors who are living independently or with family members. Immaculately clean and spacious, the center offers seniors the opportunity for interaction, companionship, stimulation and provides a respite for caregivers.
“A lot of our seniors don’t have family nearby and live alone,” said Marcia Goldenberg, program manager. “They can become isolated, withdrawn and depressed. The center becomes their family where everybody knows their name and cares about each other. The activities give them a purpose and reason to get dressed and out of bed.”
Seniors who live with family that work often are left alone all day. The center gives their family peace of mind that they are not sitting at home bored all day, Goldenberg said.
There’s always a card game or two to join – everything from pinochle to canasta or bridge. A pool room decorated with sports memorabilia is filled with a regulation billiards table. The center has a sing-along session every Tuesday with live music, arm chair yoga, line dancing, art class and bingo.
Charles Barrow, a 61-year-old retired jazz musician, said he enjoys the sing-along and trivia games.
“This gives me a chance to get away from home,” Barrow said.
A nutritious meal is served every weekday through the Meals on Wheels program and participants pay just $1 for lunch. Madeline Santos, 95, said the meal saves her from cooking.
The center holds seminars on senior topics, seasonal parties and events and health screenings. There is a lending library where seniors can sit and read and a television room with a couch and chairs to watch shows.
A thrift shop sells used items donated by seniors and the money raised helps defray the cost of activities. The center, founded in 1988, is run by Catholic Charities and funded through United Way.
Vicky Hanstein, 80, and her neighbor, Edith Zedonek, 89, take turns driving from their Lakeland condo to the center five days a week. They spend the day playing cards, visiting with friends and always join the bingo games.
“I like the camaraderie,” said Hanstein. “My daughter said she will bury me with a deck of cards and a bingo dabbler.”
The center is busiest in the winter months with anywhere from 50 to 60 seniors each day. The numbers drop to 35 to 40 during the summer. The ages range from 50 to 98 years. The only requirement is that seniors be self-sufficient since there is no nursing care.
Lake Morton Senior Center is open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. For more information call the center at 863-687-2988.
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Light of Life
Gisela Ramos was a single mother raising two children when she turned a lifelong passion for people with disabilities into a successful agency that provides respite, home care and companionship.
The woman has built Light of Life, Inc. into an agency that has grown from a single client in 2000 to one that employs 55 caregivers who care for 95 adults and children with special needs. The majority of Ramos clients are Spanish speakers who live in Orange, Seminole, Osceola and Lake counties. She has linked them with caregivers who speak Spanish or who are bilingual.
"There's a great demand for care and it is growing everyday," said Ramos. "God opened a door for me to a job that helps me relate to people with special needs."
Light of Life works with the Med-Waiver program and the Agency for Persons with Disabilities but Ramos said most of her clients come by word of mouth.
Ramos started working with children with disabilities in her native Puerto Rico. She was an assistant teacher who worked full time while she earned a degree in special education so she could become a teacher. Ramos moved to Orlando with her ex-husband but after a divorce found that she could not get a job teaching because she was not certified in Florida. So she began working in home care then decided to open an agency when she could not answer the demand for her services without help.
Maribel Jimenez heard about Light of Life from a friend at church and has been a caregiver for the past year. She has two clients that she takes shopping, to the library, bowling and to volunteer jobs. Each week she picks up Carmen Cruz, a 30-year-old woman with Down's syndrome, and takes her to volunteer at Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida and A Gift For Teaching. Jimenez helps Cruz organize school materials for teachers and separates expired food items at the food bank.
"The goal is to get Carmen out in the community and allow her to help others," said Jimenez, who added that the volunteer jobs are rewarding for both her client and herself.
Ramos said the best part of her job is working with clients but added that a majority of her time is spent on paperwork and visiting families. The cost of the service depends on the clients needs but ranges from $9 to $15 an hour.
For more information on Light of Life, call 407-568-8704.
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Meals on Wheels
Ralph Rogers is on a mission.
Twice a week he loads the trunk of his Chrysler with Styrofoam coolers full of meals he delivers to homebound seniors who can no longer cook for themselves. The nutritious portions of beef or chicken and rice may be the only hot meals some eat all week. Occasionally a second cold meal like crab pasta salad also is left that can be stored in the refrigerator.
Rogers has been volunteering with the SeniorsFirst Meals on Wheels program for the past decade. It is just an hour each Wednesday and Friday that he spends visiting the 11 people on his route and checking on their conditions.
“I have to be out and doing something everyday,” said Rogers, 74. “For some, I’m the only person they see.”
The Meals on Wheels delivery is only one of the many volunteer jobs Rogers juggles. He will play a few sets of tennis in the morning before heading to work in the Orange County Courthouse information booth, cook at the Coalition for the Homeless or volunteer his time for the Legal Aid Society of the Orange County Bar Association.
The retired principal often will help with tasks around the house like opening medications, resetting clocks or taking up a rug that could cause a fall. Mostly, the clients just want to chat, he said.
Rogers is one of more than 300 volunteers that deliver the 600 free meals to Orange County residents each weekday. Another 900 meals are served to seniors that are mobile at 16 Neighborhood Lunch sites throughout the county.
The only eligibility requirement is that seniors be 60 years of age or older. The average Meals on Wheels client is 79, lives alone with little or no family support and is at or below the poverty level.
The meals are prepared by GA Food Services in a Daytona Beach kitchen then trucked to 11 sites that parcel out the meals to volunteer drivers who cover the 60 routes in Orange County. Special meals are prepared for Christmas and Thanksgiving where clients also receive a small gift.
Meals on Wheels is funded primarily through a federal grant from the Older Americans Act and supplemented by funds from the county, local cities and the United Way. For more information or to sign up for the program, go to www.seniorsfirstinc.org or call 407-292-0177.
Nathaniel’s Hope
Tim and Marie Kuck have empathy for parents raising children with special needs.
They spent four and a half years caring for their son Nathaniel, who was born with multiple birth anomalies. The round-the-clock care was filled with sleepless nights, feeding tubes, medications, doctor’s visits, therapies and the stress of worrying about their son’s health.
That’s why they founded Nathaniel’s Hope in 2002.
The non-profit organization is a tribute to Nathaniel’s short life and provides hope and resources to children with special needs and their families.
Nathaniel’s Hope started Buddy Break, which offers respite care at local churches for children with special needs. It gives parents a few hours off to run errands or plan outings with their spouse or other children. The program also allows people in the community to get involved by being a buddy to a special needs child, called a VIP.
The Kucks learned first-hand about the constant demands of caregiving. They discovered that providing round-the-clock care can take a tremendous toll emotionally and financially on a family of a child with special needs. Doctor’s appointments, therapy sessions and trips to the hospital are juggled with the daily responsibilities of jobs, caring for other family members and a household.
Jeff and Paige Cousins discovered Buddy Breaks two years ago when they participated in Nathaniel’s Hope’s annual a Make ‘M Smile walk around Eola Park. Their five-year-old son, J.P. has several disabilities including cerebral palsy, epilepsy and hydrocephalus and they were reluctant to leave him with a babysitter.
Yet, when they heard J.P.’s pediatrician, Dr. Henry Dumas, volunteered at Wekiva Assembly’s Buddy Break, their fears were calmed.
“It’s so good to relax and reconnect with my wife without having to tend to our son,” said Jeff Cousins, whose wife, Paige stays home full time to care for J.P. “He has a good time and is always happy when we pick him up.”
The Cousins use the Buddy Break monthly but hope to use it more often when their church starts one in the fall.
Buddy Breaks are for children from 2 to 16 years old and their siblings, 4 years old to 5th grade. The special needs children include anyone with a physical, cognitive, medical or hidden disability, chronic or life-threatening illness, or those who are medically fragile.
Parents fill out a detailed notebook about their child and each Buddy attends a mandatory training class before volunteering. Each VIP is paired with a Buddy for three hours of one-on-one attention. The children play games, listen to music and stories and participate in group activities. Buddy Breaks are scheduled on Friday nights or Saturday mornings, depending on the location.
The program started in 2004 at Calvary Assembly in Winter Park and has grown to include Buddy Breaks at Faith Assembly of God in Orlando, First Baptist Sweetwater in Longwood, Wekiva Assembly of God in Longwood, South Orlando Baptist Church and St. James United Methodist Church in Tampa.
The Tucks hope to create a Buddy Break network that will be available to VIP kids nationwide. For information about Buddy Break and Nathaniel’s Hope go to www.nathanielshope.org or call 407-857-8224.
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Council on Aging Volusia County
There are card games to stimulate the mind, art and music to spark creativity and stories about the past to jog the memory.
Seniors who have early- to mid-stage dementia, Alzheimer's and other related disorders gather each weekday at Neighborhood Respite Programs to keep their minds and bodies active. The programs provide a dual purpose: to keep seniors socially engaged and give caregivers a break.
Routine and repetition are a key part of the program. The day is filled with a sequence of activities that includes exercise, sing-a-longs, table games and bingo. Coffee and tea are served at the same time each morning and parlour time to talk about the news of the day always follows lunch.
Studies have shown that repetitive activities decrease anxiety in people with dementia because they don't have to make decisions about the activity or remember what to do next.
"Stimulation and activity is the key," said Kay Richards, respite manager for the Council on Aging in Volusia County, which sponsors the neighborhood centers.
Richards has been with the program since Council on Aging started it in 2003. Neighborhood Respite has grown to include 10 centers run in space donated by churches in seven Volusia cities. The programs are kept small with a maximum of 10 clients so the two staffers and a team of community volunteers can give individual attention.
And while clients benefit from the programs, the respite is just as important for caregivers who use the six hours to run errands, go out to lunch, exercise or just relax.
"Caregivers need the break because many are on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week," Richards said. "They rarely get to take time for themselves."
The respite centers help address the growing problem of caregiver burnout. Caregivers who don't have a support system often suffer from depression, anxiety, stress and fatigue. Fewer hours of sleep and less social interaction can endanger their health. Caregivers get a chance to refresh during the hours they spend taking time for themselves.
Judy Broadwater, whose husband has had Alzheimer's for nine years, said the respite program has brought sanity and balance to her life. The retired nurse meets friends, takes long walks on the beach, visits book stores and reads without interruption when her husband, Buddy, goes to the Neighborhood Respite in Daytona Beach.
Buddy Broadwater was just 58 years old when he was diagnosed with the disease. Judy was working as a nurse but had to retire and become a full-time caregiver when her husband called the police to report she was missing while at work. Buddy, a retired postal inspector, began attending the center one day a week in 2003 as a helper who gave aid to others in the program who were often 10 to 20 years older.
"He was more fulfilled and took comfort in helping others," she said. "He has very quietly gone from a helper to one of the needy ones."
Now Buddy attends the center four or five days a week. His wife said she has also benefits from the monthly meetings of the Caregiver Support Groups sponsored by The Council on Aging. Respite care is provided so caregivers can share their experiences and attend the meetings.
"It has been great to have someone to share your fears and frustrations with," Judy Broadwater said. "The respite program and support from other caregivers has given me a chance to have a life other than Alzheimer's disease."
The Older American's Act provides the funding for the programs, which are run through the Florida Deparment of Elder Affairs and Community Care for the Elderly. Local agencies such as the Council on Aging are responsible for administering the programs throughout the state.
Clients must be homebound but require help from others to cope with the normal demands of daily living. Recipients must be 60 years of age or older and receive no other caregiving serice. They should be able to feed themselves and use the bathroom but cannot be disruptive or abusive. Anyone who qualifies receives one day at the center each week funded through the program. The centers are open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday.
For information on Neighborhood Respite Centers or Caregiver Support Group meetings in Volusia County go, call the Council on Aging at 386-253-4700 ext. 204 or go to www.coaiaa.org.
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DeLand Parkinson's Support Group
Falling is Annette Gillespie’s greatest fear.
The retired Stetson University math professor has spent the past 17 years strengthening her muscles in an exercise class to improve her balance and prevent a fall – a common problem associated with Parkinson’s disease.
An avid swimmer who walked to college each day from her DeLand home, Gillespie, 77, now concentrates on every movement, sometimes humming familiar tunes to help motivate her stiff muscles.
She is one of the 1.5 million Americans who have Parkinson’s disease. Diagnosed at the age of 50, Gillespie continued to teach until she retired in 1992. Symptoms of the brain disorder include tremors, rigidity, depression, stiff facial expressions, muffled speech and difficulty with balance and movement.
There is no cure but exercise helps ease symptoms of the chronic condition.
In a cruel twist of fate, Gillespie’s husband, Bryan, a retired Stetson English professor, received the same diagnosis ten years ago. His wife knew the symptoms and made a diagnosis before doctors confirmed it.
The pair attends a weekly exercise class sponsored by the 140-member DeLand Parkinson’s Support Group, which Annette Gillespie founded 22 years ago. The class started 17 years ago when she recruited Liz Schumaker, a Stetson exercise science professor, to research and develop a workout regimen to keep rigid muscles limber. Previously, she had taught a campus exercise program called Lunch with Liz.
“I knew she was great at her job," said Annette Gillespie, who uses a walker. "She has shown up every week since and teaches the class for free. I don't think I'd be walking now without her."
The participants roll tennis balls under their bare feet, practice recovering from a fall on tumbling mats and strengthen their voices through yodeling to prevent vocal weaknesses. Those who can no longer drive are dropped off at the First Baptist Church of DeLand’s by caregivers, while some spouses join in the class.
Sarah and Dick Miller have been attending for the past 18 months following a frightening fall in the garage. Sarah discovered her husband in a pool of blood and called 911. He stayed in the hospital a week before they received the Parkinson’s diagnosis.
“When I think of the alternative, I’m happy to be this old,” said Dick Miller, an 87-year-old retired marketing director.
The Millers sit in straight-backed folding chairs that form a circle. They pull 2-pound weights and elastic bands from Sarah’s purse to help with some of the resistance exercises. She said she joins because the workout improves her muscle strength as well.
The exercise class also serves as a support system where members share tips about nutrition, medications and Parkinson’s studies. About a dozen people participate at 3 p.m. each Thursday in the church’s Family Center. New members are invited to join any time.
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PARKS
Two Orlando sisters who have spent a decade working with the disabled have launched a program of physical activities paired with nutritional information aimed at people with disabilities.
Brandy Bartol and Kari Romano believe exercise is important for every body. They have partnered with local sponsors and offered therapeutic swimming and horse back riding, adaptive boating and nutritional cooking classes for free to disabled youths and adults.
The sisters have worked in rehabilitation and therapeutic programs for years but found that many cannot afford the costly programs. So they applied for several grants and bartered for in-kind contributions to offer the activities at no cost to Central Florida families.
Healthy activities are critical for people with disabilities who are prone to have a more sedentary lifestyle and have a tendency for under, over or misuse of their muscles. Lack of physical activity and poor nutrition are leading indicators for poor health, which impacts both physical and mental health as well as school performance and family stability.
Studies show that physically fit individuals experience fewer instances of depression, more positive self-esteem, better sleeping patterns and more energy than those who aren't regularly active.
In 2006, the Florida legislature allocated $2.5 million for a Hispanic Obesity Prevention Program. The sisters received a $10,000 grant from Physical Activity Really Kounts (PARKs), the local program that is carrying out the initiative. It provides funding to enable people with disabilities to fully participate in physical activities in an inclusive and accessible environment.
The sisters worked with community sponsors to set up weekly activities that include an adaptive boating program at Lake Fairview Marina, therapeutic swimming at RDV Sportsplex, horseback riding at Freedom Ride and cooking classes at Truffles & Trifles, a College Park cooking store.
The cost of many of these activities is prohibitive for families that are caring for a person with disability. For instance, therapeutic horseback riding normally costs $40 an hour and a cooking class at Truffles and Trifles start at $48.
The classes have attracted people with a range of disabilities including cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, multiple sclerosis, autism and those with brain injuries and quadriplegics.
The sisters have applied for non-profit status and a federal grant. The hope the six-week program can run year round. The will run it under the name Everybody’s Able.
Raf Rasheed said PARKS has helped keep her son busy and looking forward to activities. Aneil Rasheed, 31, had a brain injury at 14 and is confined to a wheelchair. The sailing and horseback riding have helped improve his balance, made him more flexible and less spastic, his mother said.
“It is important to find activities that occupy his mind so he doesn’t think about his disability,” she said.
Coral Nelson said the activities have raised her son’s confidence and self esteem. Trevor, 12, has motor coordination problems and a seizure disorder and his mother describes him as more intellectual and cerebral than physical.
“Sports are a big deal for boys and this program has offered Trevor a safe environment to do something physical,” she said.
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The Russell Home for Atypical Children
Vantrease Russell saved just as many marriages as children during the more than 50 years she took care of the disabled children no one wanted.
More than 1,500 children have found refuge in the home that Russell and her husband built to raise their own seven children. Since her death in 2003, her children and grandchildren are carrying on her legacy in the same one-story house that has had spare bedrooms added from every angle to accommodate 25 full-time residents.
The former teacher started the first nonprofit home for brain-damaged children in the country in 1951. Nearly all the children she adopted are adults now but most have the mental capacity of children. There are adults with vacant stares and crooked limbs who have never grown out of cribs. There are children whose bodies function normally but their brains do not. They range in age from 3 to 62.
The Orlando home is known in the community for opening its doors to hundreds of youngsters, sometimes after hearing pleas from desperate parents, and in more than one instance, finding them just left on the doorstep.
Janet Nixon, one of the three Russell daughters who run the home, said their mission is to never turn anyone away. Even when all beds were full, “Grandma Russell” would sleep on the living room couch to make room for another child, her daughter said.
There are people like Newton Crisler, 50, who showed up on the doorstep four years ago with his guardian. The man with Down’s syndrome often visited the home for respite and when his mother died she left orders that he live with Grandma Russell.
Crisler is known for his Japanese-style backrubs that he learned from his father. He also counts down the days until he goes to summer camp with the Russell family at their second home in the Georgia mountains. The short man with the boyish grin is quick to tell a visitor that he goes to camp each year with his brothers. All the men visit the camp one week and the women follow the next.
One of the women is a 62-year-old who has lived at the Russell Home for Atypical Children since she was three. Her father died suddenly and her mother could not care for her and her siblings while running the family business. Even with a few wrinkles, Marilyn still looks and acts like a child. Her 91-year-old mother visits weekly and is a valuable financial supporter of the family that took her daughter to raise as their own.
“We were raised in this environment,” said Nixon. “These people are our family.”
The Russell Home is on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week to take emergency calls from hospitals, frantic families or desperate mothers who just need a break from raising a disabled child.
“Mother always wanted our home to be open to anyone,” said Nixon, who added that they operate without the benefit of federal, state or local funding. Grandma Russell did not want to deal with bureaucratic paperwork and subsisted on the donations and the kindness of strangers to pay the bills.
There are 22 paid staffers who work at the home as child care attendants, nurse's aides, cooks, housekeepers and maintenance personnel. Mrs. Russell never received a salary for her work, nor does any officer or director of the board.
Many of the residents receive monthly disability payments which go toward groceries and upkeep of the home, which takes nearly a million dollars a year to run. The bulk of the income comes from churches, community organizations and individuals who donate cash and services.
Even when donations are dwindling, the Russell family vows they will never turn anyone in need away. Nixon said they are fulfilling the promise they made to their mother to take care of the community’s babies.
For more information on the Russell Home for Atypical Children, go to www.russellhome.org or call 407-855-8063.
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Share the Care
Share the Care is all about options.
The non-profit organization offers choices for people who want to remain in the comfort of their own homes for as long as possible. It gives a break or respite to caretakers of frail, physically and mentally-impaired adults.
The options include three adult care centers that open five days a week, four neighborhood centers that offer care one or two days a week, emergency crisis care, respite care workers that visit homes, a memory disorder clinic affiliated with Orlando Regional Medical Center and overnight care in assisted living centers.
Last year, Share the Care served 1,300 Central Florida families with a $1.2 million budget. It provided educational classes for caregivers as well as sponsoring a two-night, three-day forum at a local hotel so family caregivers can relax and rejuvenate.
The need for relief will only increase as the population ages.
“We are in the midst of a paradigm shift,” said Mary Ellen Grant, executive director of Share the Care. “Baby Boomers are shopping around for the best quality care for family members. The statistics are mind-boggling. People who live to 85 years of age have a 50 percent chance of having dementia.”
About 77 million babies were born in the United States during the boom years of 1946 to 1964. In 2011, the oldest will turn 65 and on average can expect to live to 83. Many will continue well into their 90s, according to a 2003 report on retirement by the Harvard School of Public Health.
The Orlando non-profit started in 1986 with a small grant through the Alzheimer’s Disease Initiative awarded to the Christian Sharing Center in Orlando. The first Alzheimer’s Respite Care Program (ARCP) was set up at a local church and other grants paid for overnight emergency care. As demand increased, the ARCP enlarged its reach to include any family providing care for an older adult at home and became Share the Care, an independent 501 (c) 3, in 2002.
Services are funded through a number of federal and local grants and sources including: the National Family Caregiving Program, the Older Americans Act, City of Orlando, Heart of Florida United Way and Orlando Regional Healthcare.
While researching for grant funds, Mary Ellen Grant discovered that that Florida’s memory disorder clinics were not successfully reaching the African American community.
"Of the 2,864 new patients evaluated at memory disorder clinics in Florida, from 2002 to 2003, only 125 or 4.3 percent were African Americans, where as recent studies show African Americans represent 14.6 percent of the state’s total population,” Grant said.
To meet the demand, Share the Care opened an adult care center in downtown Orlando to cater to the underserved Washington Shores, Parramore and Holden Heights neighborhoods. Depending on income level, nearly every one of the 26 clients that attend receives full or partial waivers, according to Grant.
A 69-year-old man named Franklin plays dominoes with two other men on a picnic table outdoors while another group dances to the tunes of their youth. The retired airways facility technician trades stories about flying and wears one of the construction-paper blue plaid hats. Clients stay busy with memory activities, sing-a-longs, movie matinees and exercise classes. The centers allow families to continue working while caring for their loves ones.
“The center helps extend social circles and makes people feel they are worthy,” said Yvonne Miller, director of the Orlando adult care center. “We’re like family, fulfilling their needs as well as providing support for caregivers.”
Share the Care offers services for residents of Orange and Seminole counties. Rates are based on the recipient’s income and are on a sliding fee scale. For more information go to www.helpforcaregivers.org or call 407-423-5311.
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SHINE
Help to Navigate the Medicare and Medicaid Bureaucracy
There's free service that helps seniors decipher the complicated maze of insurance paperwork and requirements.
Serving Health Insurance Needs of Seniors (SHINE) has a team of more than 400 volunteers who provide information, counseling and assistance on Medicare, Medicaid, long-term care insurance, prescription assistance and Medicare fraud.
The free service assists those who will soon become eligible or those who act on behalf of Medicare beneficiaries, including family members and caregivers.
Serving Health Insurance Needs of Seniors (SHINE) has assisted more than 600,000 seniors since it started in 1993. It is funded through a grant from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and administered by the Florida Department of Elder Affairs.
Volunteers provide counseling services at sites throughout the state or over the telephone. Home visits can be scheduled for homebound clients. The volunteers also travel throuthout the state giving presentations to community groups and providing information at health and senior fairs.
SHINE empowers seniors to reach informed decisions about their health care.
For more information about SHINE, go to www.call the Florida Elder Care Hotline at 1-800-963-5337.
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Stepping Stone
Multiple Sclerosis and a stroke have left Raymond Maldonado bedridden for the past year.
His wife, Leticia, makes monthly visits to Stepping Stone, a non-profit medical equipment bank in Orlando that provides adult diapers, bed pads and a host of medical needs at no charge to the couple that survives on a fixed income.
Medicare covers 80 percent of Maldonado’s medical needs but the couple’s fixed income does not allow for any extras, said his wife Leticia, who stays home to care for her husband.
“We could never make it without Stepping Stone,” she said. “They help me out with anything I need.”
Most of the medical equipment that is stacked in the 5,000-square-foot warehouse has been donated by individuals, hospitals or medical clinics. Motorized wheelchairs, boxes of latex gloves, gauze, crutches, hospital beds and multicolored walkers line the walls and shelves of the warehouse. Once donated, the equipment is cleaned and refurbished, then recycled to those in need.
Last year, Stepping Stone provided more than 20,000 items of medical equipment and supplies to the disadvantaged. Recipients qualify on a sliding scale depending on their monthly income and number of people in the household.
There is a huge need for the service in Orange County, where more than 450,000 people do not have medical insurance, said Lydia Roger, director of Stepping Stone.
“Even those that have insurance, often cannot afford the huge cost of supplies,” she said. “Medicare, Medicaid and private insurers are reducing medical equipment benefits and many of our clients live on fixed incomes.”
The equipment also is priced nominally for those that can afford to pay. For instance motorized wheelchairs are $350 to $400 compared to the cost of buying them new at $2,000 to $3,000. Canes and elevated toilet seats are just $5 each, while a Hoyer Lift starts at $40.
Stepping Stone wasfunded by a grant from the Community Investment Funds of the Community Foundation of Central Florida, Inc. The program is run by Seniors First. For more information, go to www.seniorsfirst.com or call 407-649-4100.
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The Ancient Art of High Tea
Maria Osowski was getting low staring at the tubes sending chemotherapy into her body when a cart covered in fine linen was wheeled into her room.
There were an array of cups and saucers in bone china, an ornate teapot sitting in an insulated wicker basket called a tea cozy. Fresh baked muffins and scones were accompanied with homemade clotted cream and lemon curd. A heated blanket warmed her legs as she practiced The Ancient Art of High Tea - not in a fancy tea room but on the fifth floor of the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center Orlando.
“It was such an unexpected treat,” said Osowski. “The tea was served on beautiful china – not just another paper cup.”
The Vero Beach woman and her husband, Michael, drive 90 minutes every two weeks for the chemo treatment. She was originally diagnosed with breast cancer in 1998 then three years ago was diagnosed with lung cancer. Some days, she feels well enough to sip tea in the spacious fifth floor lobby with windows overlooking the scenic downtown Orlando skyline.
The High Tea is just one of several Mind/Body/Spirit services designed to help patients find balance and renewal in the midst of a health crisis. The British tea and elaborate accoutrements provide respite from the tediousness of medical routines.
The hospital serves patients, family, nurses, doctors, staffers, the flight crew that handles emergencies and even the valet parkers at the Thursday afternoon ritual. The monthly tradition started four years then was changed to weekly the day after the United States declared war on Iraq.
Jeanne Miller-Clark, manager of the Mind/Body/Spirit Center, said historically the ritual of high tea was used as an oasis of peace in the midst of war. During World War II, the British still practiced the daily custom because they believed a cup of tea could cure anything.
“We all have our rituals,” Miller-Clark said. “Tea evokes memories of kitchen table times with family spreading a legacy of love.”
She said one patient started to cry after sipping her tea because she had memories of her Scottish mother who always brewed the hot beverage each afternoon.
Michael Molina, a retired Pan American World Airways pilot, said the tea helps boost his morale. Molina was diagnosed with breast cancer and was in remission for six years when the cancer metastasized to his lungs. His wife, Myrna, said the tea gives them a chance to mingle with staff to ask questions and socialize with other patients.
A team of volunteers arrive early to prepare the rich clotted cream. A chilled bowl and beaters are used to whip heavy whipping cream, powdered sugar, vanilla and almond extracts. The baked goods often are donated along with a collection of cups and saucers, labeled in memory of the donor.
After high tea, the fine china is carefully hand washed in a sink of sudsy water then sterilized in a dishwasher before it is returned to its glass cabinet.
“This is a gift of beauty – no Styrofoam allowed,” said Miller-Clark.
Several of the volunteers said the tea helps sooth their spirits as well. Wanda Vascik, 81, said her doctor told her she had to get involved with something after a nervous breakdown. She said serving others keeps her mind off her own problems.
Volunteer Mari Valesi, 52, is in remission from multiple myeloma and said she feels “it is important for patients to see someone who has survived.”
About 120 people take advantage of the free High Tea each week. It is held every Thursday from 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. on the fifth floor and the first Tuesday of the month at the same time on the second floor of the hospital. For more information, call the Mind/Body/Spirit Center at 321-841-8639.
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An Option for Endurance
Bob Wood originally had to push his wife in a wheelchair to participate in the Therapeutic Water Exercise Classes in Altamonte Springs.
A chair lift was used to place the great grandmother in the heated pool. Three back surgeries stole much of her mobility.
But after attending the classes three days a week for three years, Linda Wood is able to use a walker to get to the pool and the sloping ramp gives her easy access. She said the class has helped increase her energy level and range of motion. Her husband does push ups and water crunches while she works out.
“She’s (Linda) made such tremendous progress,” said Janice Simpson, a certified Arthritis Foundation water instructor who has taught at the Altamonte Springs Therapeutic Pool for four years.
Simpson said her mother was riddled with rheumatoid arthritis and she discovered the pool when her husband was disabled. She started helping him with the exercise classes then decided to become certified to teach.
The 92-degree temperature in the indoor pool helps loosen stiff muscles, increase endurance and strengthens the cardiovascular system.
“The water makes us feel buoyant and weightless so there is less stress on the joints,” Simpson said.
The instructor guides participants through a warm-up then a group of balance, resistance and strength exercises before the cool down. She announces that it is time for a piano lesson when she directs them to let their fingers play in the water. Styrofoam barbells are used as weights and pastel-colored noodles help with floating and balance.
Laura Taylor, a retired registered nurse, has been attending the classes for a decade. The 84-year-old Casselberry woman has diabetic neuropathy and lost all feeling in her legs. She said the classes improve her mobility and give her a social outlet.
After class, the swimmers can relax in an adjoining whirlpool and use any of the exercise equipment to further their stamina. The group chats about health, caregiving and what’s for lunch.
Tony Fidanza, 61, has had two hips replaced but said the water exercises have delayed the need for two knee replacement surgeries. The retired police officer has been attending for three years and picked up his friend, Tom Chiaverini, 94, who suffers from spinal stinosis. The retired New York City subway operator said the classes have helped relieve pain during the past seven years.
The City of Altamonte Springs opened the pool in 1988 to aid the area’s disabled population. A similar pool is scheduled to open in the fall in Winter Springs.
Participants can register for one class that meets twice a week and use the pool during all open swim times. A physician’s consent form is required each year.
The pool is open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, from 9:40 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday for open swim only and from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday. Classes include water aerobics and those for three different levels of arthritis. The cost is $75 per year for non residents along with a $2 pool identification card. Altamonte Springs residents pay only for the ID.
A schedule of classes can be found at www.altamonteleisure.org.
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Threshold, Inc.
There are 1,600 names on the waiting list to get into Threshold, Inc., a Winter Park group home for children and adults with autism. Yet, there are only 16 beds on the eight-acre campus.
The numbers are frightening, especially when there is no cure and no one knows the cause of the neurological disorder that touches more lives each year. Autism is more prevalent than Down’s syndrome, childhood diabetes and childhood cancer combined. Every 20 minutes a child is diagnosed with autism and the rate is growing by 11 percent each year.
Autism impairs a person's ability to communicate and relate to others. It is also associated with repetitive behaviors, such as obsessively arranging objects or following very specific routines. Symptoms can range from very mild to severe.
The non-profit Threshold has plans to build three additional group homes but that still will not meet the needs of Central Florida’s growing autistic community. It also plans to team with the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne to build an education facility on campus where college students can receive hands on behavioral training with Threshold clients.
Teena Willard founded Threshold in 1976 for her son Ben, who is autistic and has cerebral palsy. What started in the family room of her home has grown to a facility with three intensive group homes and the Norm Glass Education and Training Center. Off campus facilities include four private group homes and the Threshold Potters Shop Adult Day Training Center that helps integrate clients into the local community.
Threshold’s Childhood Development Center started a decade ago as an education option for students that do not do well in standard or special education classrooms in Orange and Seminole counties. The school provides critical early intervention and language skills for children at the pre-K level. The 1:1 instruction is essential to help students with significant language delays or severe behavioral problems.
Threshold is run by Willard’s oldest son, Dr. Bob Wright, a retired Green Beret who uses his training in applied behavioral management to help redirect clients who exhibit severe behavioral problems.
“Our mission is to take the children nobody wants,” said Wright. “If your child is diagnosed with autism today, you will need $4 million to pay for lifetime care. Ninety-nine percent of the parents do not have that kind of money and must rely on non-profit organizations like us to help.”
Wright said that when his brother was diagnosed 30 years ago, one in 5,000 children was considered autistic. That figure has grown to 1 in 150 today.
“Autism is the polio of our generation,” he said. “We could open 40 group homes tomorrow and still not fill the void.”
For more information, visit www.threshold.ws or www.unlockingautism.org.
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Transition Options
A Winter Park health care management firm provides an array of concierge-style services to ensure seniors, the sick and injured remain in the comfort of their own homes as long as possible.
Transitions Options has a staff of registered nurses and licensed caregivers that act as professional care managers by assisting clients with everything from diet and health to running a household.
The staff navigates the bureaucracy of benefit programs, insurance policies and medical needs so clients can make informed decisions about their future. They have picked up pets during a medical emergency, found lawn care specialists and taken care of cooking chores by signing up clients for a Meals on Wheels program or sending a gourmet chef to prepare meals.
Cathy Curtis, who formerly worked in managed care for insurance companies, said she founded Transitions Options in 2003 because she was tired of rationing health care dollars and saving money for insurance companies.
“We saved millions of dollars for insurance companies,” Curtis said. “We wanted to use our power for good instead of evil.”
Curtis explained that insurance companies want to save money rather than spend it and that’s why seniors need professionals to help them receive the benefits they deserve. The 13 staffers at Transitions Options all have medical as well as insurance backgrounds. They can attend doctor’s visits or hospital appointments and know the important questions to ask and how to explain medical terms and treatment plans to their clients.
“People want to remain independent and in charge,” said Curtis, who added that some elderly clients don’t want their families to know about their inability to care for their own needs. “They fear they’ll end up in a nursing home.”
Transition Options looks out for the caregiver as well as the family member that needs the care. They fashion respite or breaks for the caregiver that fit into their schedule, whether it is sending a caregiver into the home or finding an assisted living facility for the client.
Some caregivers do not want to leave their loved ones so Transitions Options brings an array of respite services to them. It can be a spa experience that includes manicures, pedicures and massages for both the caregiver and client. Or the break may just be finding someone to come to the home to do housekeeping chores, laundry or cook meals.
The care providers become part of the family and know medical histories, caregiver needs and contacts to call in an emergency. Transition Options has helped plan funeral arrangements and even coordinated a wedding that included providing personal care assistants and transportation to the nuptials for four relatives who reside in assisted living centers.
Larry Witzleben and his brother, Fred, used hired Transition Options to coordinate for their mother.
“She passed in March and they even came to her service,” Larry Witzleben said. “They were such a comfort to her and a comfort to us by being there for her.”
The firm has a Wellness and Independence Assurance Program that sets up a customized health plan for clients for an annual $695 fee. A case manager visits the home and reviews medical history, insurance information and medications. They develop a fall back plan in case of a crisis that will accommodate pets or dependents left in the home ad. A list of family, friends and neighbors will be made to include in a communications loop that will keep everyone informed.
Clients also can select individual services and pay $100 an hour for consulting, assessment of individual issues and coordination of any needed service. Other services start as little as $15 an hour.
For more information on Transition Options, call 407-629-5233 or 1-800-252-2717 or visit their Web site at www.transitionoptions.com.
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211
Help is just three push buttons away by using the national 2-1-1 information and referral service.
By simply dialing 2-1-1, callers can connect with information and referral counselors who are trained to help solve a variety of problems. The information specialists can give referrals to health and human services, suicide intervention, community resources and disaster related services.
The easy to remember number began as a public utility in 1993 as a way to link residents with community social services. "Empowering People with Information" is the mission of the non-profit that uses technology to support case managers and other social service workers.
Referrals for services range from elder care, bereavement support groups, childcare and emergency food and financial assistance to U.S. citizenship and immigration counseling, volunteer opportunities for senior citizens and youth mentoring programs.
The centralized data base reduces the duplication of services the type of assistance needed and granted, while assuring confidentiality.
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