||| FROM TOM EVERSOLE for ORCAS SENIOR CENTER |||
Relocation
Most retired islanders came here to stay and contribute. Many do not have family or children nearby or available to help. Selling everything and moving to a nursing home on the mainland or starting over in a new community—frail and in one’s final decade—is a difficult option and impossible for many.
Orcas Senior Center (OSC) provides two levels of companion services for older adults (Buddy Check-In and Hearts and Hands) as well as social, recreational, health, and educational group activities. People of all ages and abilities engage socially at OSC as both volunteers and recipients.
In-Home Care
Some seniors bathe their partners who have paralysis or dementia, lifting them out of the bathtub and back into bed. COPES, the public in-home health care service provided by Medicaid, is not readily available to low-income seniors and people with disabilities on Orcas. COPES pays workers $20 – $24/hour, whereas private workers earn about $40/hour. Caregivers cannot afford to work for COPES in a resort economy where they can earn $30 or more/hour cleaning houses and mowing lawns.
OSC supports public and private organizations to develop affordable, sustainable long-term care, home care, and home health solutions. To learn more about Companion Service programs (Buddy Check-In and Hearts and Hands), go to www.orcasseniors.org or contact Edy Hansen at edy@orcasseniors.org or 206-413-6167.
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