Community Care

Community Care continuing to do the work!

Marking Older Americans Month 2020! Around the nation, older adults make their marks every day as volunteers, employees, employers, parents, grandparents, mento...rs, and advocates. They offer their time, talents, and experience to the benefit of our communities. For 57 years, Older Americans Month (OAM) has been a special time to recognize these contributions. Led by the Administration for Community Living (ACL) each May, OAM highlights ways to help older Americans stay healthy and independent. This year’s OAM theme, Make Your Mark, highlights older adults’ unique and lasting contributions to their communities. Towards this goal, Community Care Management’s aging services programs help 286 older adults in Lake and Mendocino Counties each month to thrive at their highest level of independence. What’s more, nine of the agency’s 14 Multipurpose Senior Services (MSSP) and Senior Information & Assistance Program staff members coordinating these services are over the age of 60 themselves. MSSP Program Director Corinne Jones’ path to serving our community’s older adults is featured in the current edition of her alma mater USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology’s Vitality Magazine. The article (at https://issuu.com/uscleo//full_magazine_final_3.18.2020/28) describes her history of entering the graduate program after she had retired from a 40-year career in the corporate world. Community Care continues to make its mark on the lives of older adults, both as employer and service provider. To learn more about available services, contact Senior Information & Assistance Monday through Friday at 468-5132, or visit www.SeniorResourceDirectory.org.

March 2020 marks a milestone for Community Care’s Senior Information & Assistance Program! In 2006 the program expanded its service area to include older adults... in all of Mendocino and Lake Counties. Each year it has responded to the questions of an average of 384 individuals, and approximately 293 of those annual inquirers have been first-time callers. Now in its 14th year of speaking with older adults and their loved ones from Point Arena to Clearlake Oaks, Senior Information & Assistance is pleased to report that it has served over 4,000 unique individuals. Funded through the Area Agency on Aging of Lake & Mendocino Counties, and with the longtime support of the T.R. Eriksen Foundation, Senior Information & Assistance not only offers referrals to callers about available programs and services for older adults, it also checks back with them to see if they were able to make a connection to those supports. This follow-up component is one of the things that brings callers back to Community Care months and years later as new needs and questions arise. To learn more about area resources for adults ages 60 and older, Contact Senior Information & Assistance Monday through Friday, 8:00am to 5:00pm, by calling (707) 468-5132 or 1 (800) 510-2020, or visit www.SeniorResourceDirectory.org.