March 29, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

New Eldercare Program to begin in ’92

CARIBOU — The Aroostook Area Agency on Aging (AAAA) and Cary Medical Center will initiate a new Eldercare Program in January with assistance from a $30,000 grant received from the Administration Agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

A total of $34,192 or 55 percent of the matching funds will be provided by AAAA, with the program administered at Cary Medical Center.

The project will focus on the needs of older people, primarily those that are low-income and lack the financial resources to pay for preventive vision and hearing care or vision aids and hearing aids.

Aroostook County has a growing older population with the majority of its population living on a very low income. In fact, 37 percent of the elderly live on income below the federal poverty standard while another 15 percent get by on incomes just 25 percent above the level, according to program organizers.

The Eldercare Project will address the need for preventive health care by coordinating hearing and vision screening clinics and follow-up care for those who are most needy. Transportation needs for elderly will be provided.

Part-time program coordinator Karren Johnson will work with a network of community volunteer organizations to assist with all aspects of the program. Johnson will coordinate the screening clinics and a hearing-aid recycling program. Community organizations will be asked to assist in raising funds for a revolving-loan fund.

“Hearing and vision aids are costly and there are few public resources available to assist in the purchase of the needed equipment,” said Johnson. “We plan to take a new approach to this problem. The project plans to study the idea of a recycling program for hearing aids. The used hearing aids would be distributed at no cost to eligible people. Individuals receiving such hearing aids would have to pay for only the custom molds.”

The same guidelines for the hearing aid program would be applied to an eyeglass recycling program, to collect and distribute used eye glasses. A revolving loan fund will be established for the purchase of eye glasses and hearing canal molds for the very needy older people, said Johnson.

An additional aspect to the Eldercare Project will be a transportation program. A previous demonstration project, Project Maine Neighbor, was successful in developing community volunteer transportation networks in 11 rural communities, said organizers.

The Eldercare Project will replicate the development of such community organizations for the purpose of providing medical rides to older people in need in at least 20 additional communities. Coordinator of the transportation program will be Shirley Aube of AAAA.


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