A workshop with representatives from the Area Agency on Aging (AAA) and the Jones County Board of Commissioners revealed disturbing news last week pertaining to the effect of state cuts on seniors.

It appears from information received from Geri Ward, AAA director, and Sharon Dawson, contacts manager/planner, that a proposed reduction for state home-delivered meals, previously known as the meals on wheels program, could literally take food out of the mouths of the elderly recipients in 11 Middle Georgia counties.

Ward told the commissioners she is asking for ideas of how to handle the cuts while still caring for seniors. A letter sent to Commission Chairman Preston Hawkins by Ward in preparation of the workshop explained that the Middle Georgia Regional Development Center is responsible for planning and developing services to adults ages 60 and over.

The services are intended to help seniors to avoid premature institutionalization, which reduces the cost of care to taxpayers while permitting the senior to remain in familiar surroundings.

The governor’s cuts will take $72,429 in state funding for the home-delivered meals program resulting in the loss of 9,821 home-delivered meals in Middle Georgia, and transportation services to older adults will be sharply curtailed or eliminated by March 2009.

In-home respite services to caregivers of frail older adults have been sharply decreased with the loss of $97,770 in funding and nutrition, and wellness programs at the region’s 12 senior centers have been significantly reduced by the loss of $64,603 in funding.

Dawson said the agency applied to the state for a waiver, and its revised allocation for the home-delivered meals is 3.6 percent.

Jones County will not be among the centers receiving the cuts, however, due to the support the county provides to the program.

Last October the county purchased a 12-passenger van for the center to assist with transportation and furnishes fuel for all three of the center’s vans. Center Manager Ann Carter said it is because of Jones County’s support of the center that it was not included in the transportation cuts.

“We are so fortunate that the county takes such good care of its senior citizens,” Carter said. “If we were to have to reduce our home-delivered meals, we would look at the more active people. We would not cut out anyone who has no other source of nutrition.”

Carter did say that the drivers who deliver the meals are many times the only people to see the meal recipients for the entire day.

If Jones County were included in the cuts, it could amount to stopping delivery to three of the 60 senior citizens now receiving the daily meals. Dawson explained that the transportation cost is the issue because the meals are 100 percent fully funded.

The average daily attendance at the Jones County Senior Center is 21, and the program provides its clients with one-third of their needed nutrition. The funding cuts at affected centers mean that transportation for the seniors will be decreased from five to three days a week. The centers will remain open on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but the vans will not be sent to pick up the clients.

According to the website of the Middle Georgia RDC, www.mgrdc.org, more than $9.5 million in funding is managed by the AAA that is provided through the Older Americans Act and the Community Care and Services for the Elderly Act. The RDC administers the Community Care Services Program, a Medicare Program, which is a cost savings to the state of over $13,000 per each client.

Ward said the state feels the situation could be partially resolved through attrition because the seniors being served are frail and likely to enter the hospital or nursing home. The unsaid component was that they are also likely to die.

Information received from State Rep. Jim Cole states that home-delivered meals are paid for out of different pots of money.  Federal money pays for 85 percent, state is required to match 5 percent, and the local match is 10 percent.

The local AAAs put in money based on how strong their local partnerships are. Some get county money, but there are other funding sources, including self-pay and United Way.

Medicaid pays for meals for Community Care Service Provider and SOURCE patients. The average cost of a meal through the AAA is $7.54. Congregate meals served at the center are $8.69, and home- delivered meals cost $6.89.

 

From the state view, no new meals are being authorized, and officials hope to maintain the current level of service through attrition so that no members will be cut. At worst, they do not intend to take meals away, but to share the loss among recipients.