Area Plan and Survey Season
April 15, 2019
By: Jody Moss
Email: mossjm1@dshs.wa.gov
Once every 4 years, our agency, Olympic Area Agency on Aging, is required to complete an Area Plan which guides our work over the next 4 years. This year will be my first Area Plan development. And like all new challenges, I am approaching it with traditional does of heavy worry, significant anxiety and a healthy dose of heartburn.
A 100 plus page report, due in October, well researched and footnoted…puts me right back in 9th grade! It’s like having to get up and speak in front of a crowd with no prepared notes. Or taking a test you have not adequately studies for. Failure feels imminent.
Why is it that things like this can amp up our anxiety when normally we feel confident in our skills, our planning, and our work?
Well, if I knew the answer to that question, then I’d know one more thing…and still be anxious, worried and agitated.
So now that you are all commiserating with me, here is how you can help.
You can go online and answer a 23 question anonymous survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NLL2L5L or linked on the first page of our website: www.o3A.org. Or you can call our office at 360-379-5064, and Judy Laurent will take our answers over the phone, or we can mail you a survey, or you can stop in our office and get a paper survey to complete.
Okay, thank you! You can stop reading if you want.
Wait just a minute! Let’s back up 3 steps. What is an Area Plan and why do I need you to do a survey? And what will the survey be used for?
In order to answer those questions I need a few more steps backwards, just to lay the groundwork.
In case you did not know, Olympic Area Agency on Aging serves as the safe entry point for elders who are aging and need help to be able to stay in their homes, and for adults with disabilities, and for the people who take care of them. Our Information and Assistant Specialists, Case Managers, Family Caregiver Support & Kinship Caregiver Specialists, Nurses, Health Home Care Coordinators, Long Term Care Ombudsmen, State Health Insurance Benefits Advisers, Home Care Referral Registry staff, are all waiting to help you so you are not so lost in negotiating the weird and complicated roadway called aging.
That is all part of the Area Plan.
Then there are our contractors – those agencies we contract with to further help you in your home. We have agencies that provide meals at seniors centers to those over 60, and home delivered meals, agencies who deliver personal care in your home, transportation providers, contractors who install ramps, grab bars, and other things to help in your home, counselors, pest eradication, Personal Emergency Response Systems (the I’ve fallen and can’t get up button), Senior Legal Advice programs, Chronic Disease Self Management, and falls prevention programs like Staying Active and Independent for Life and Tai Ji Quan Movement for Better Balance and Dance Exercise for Alzheimer’s, Savvy Caregivers and Powerful Tools for Caregivers, and all kinds of other supports.
All part of the Plan.
Data – that’s part of the plan too – drawing a picture of our region. Our ages, our wealth or lack of it, were we live, our ethnic and cultural background and more.
The Area Plan tells the story of our communities. And it helps us decide how to invest in helping keep everyone safe in their homes for as long as possible. The plan helps us save money for the state and for the federal government by helping adults with disabilities and elders avoid unnecessary emergency room visits, get the right kind of services to help us stay in our homes instead of going into the dreaded nursing home.
Most important, the plan helps us to be of help to you.
So what’s missing from the plan? You, you’re missing from the plan. What do you think, what needs do you have or what needs do you think others in our community have or will have? Whether you are a caregiver, a client, an older person, a person with aging parents, an educator, a worker, an unemployed person, a waiter, a musician, an artist, an adult with disabilities, a meter reader, whatever you are, we need your thoughts in order to create a great Area Plan that will meet the needs of real people.
What will we do with your survey? If you take the survey, you will notice that it asks some general information about you, but does not require your name. We only ask you for your name if you want us to call you back. So we keep it confidential, even when we have your name. We use your survey combined with everyone else’s to get an even bigger picture of the aging and disability issues you encounter every day. And when you combine your answer with 1,000 other answers it gives us a better picture of where the greatest need is going to be.
Now can we address all needs? No, we are not going to be able to cure Alzheimer’s, solve homelessness, build more affordable housing, find more caregivers for home care agencies to employ, fix your aches and pains from growing older. But maybe, just maybe we can allocate more resources serving those and caregivers of those with some form of dementia, and identify resources and partnerships to help support people with housing issues, or partner with high schools and community colleges in a workforce development project. About your aches and pains…sorry I have my own. Ibuprofen and exercise is my go to.
So let me repeat myself…You can go online and answer a 23 question anonymous survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NLL2L5L or linked on the first page of our website: www.o3A.org. Or you can call our office at 360-379-5064, and Judy Laurent will take our answers over the phone, or we can mail you a survey, or you can stop in our office and get a paper survey to complete. The survey will run through May 2019.
Okay, thank you! And now you really can stop reading.
Now am I less nervous…well maybe a little…nope, now that I think of it, here comes the anxiety again. Oh well, there is always mid October when all this will be over for another 4 years.
Jody Moss is the Director of Contracts Management & Planning for the Olympic Area Agency on Aging and can be reached at 360-379-5064. For help with senior or adults with disability issues call Information and Assistance at 360-452-3221 in Clallam and 360-385-2552 in Jefferson.