Affordable Services in Your Own Back Yard
Aging and disabled individuals can take advantage of many free public services. We help families find the right ones. Greenbelt, MD, is one community that goes out of its way to make life better for aging residents.
An interview with Christal Batey
An interview with Christal Batey, Community Resource Advocate, Greenbelt Assistance in Living (GAIL) Program. This interview focuses narrowly on Greenbelt, but lots of other communities also provide free or low-cost services for aging and disabled individuals. We can help families find the right ones.
What is the Greenbelt Assistance in Living Program?
Greenbelt was one of the first planned communities in the United States. It was created as part of the New Deal in 1937. The concept was to build a community where people could walk to schools and shopping in the heart of town, with houses, parks, and greenery surrounding that. People don’t want to feel that they need to leave this environment just because they hit a certain age.
GAIL (http://www.greenbeltmd.gov/seniors/index.htm) was established in 2000 through a three-year grant to the City of Greenbelt in conjunction with Greenbelt Homes, Inc., a cooperative housing community. The funding came from a New York–based organization called NORC Supportive Services, Inc. The program was initially designed to help keep seniors in their homes. During the initial three years the program hired a Community Resource Advocate and conducted a needs assessment survey of 600 seniors, caregivers, and baby boomers. At the end of three years the program had become so popular that the City Council made it a permanent part of city government.
GAIL provides an array of services, including:
* information and referrals
* one-on-one counseling
* community nursing
* a program to provide adaptable equipment such as tub grip bars or toilet safety frames
* a brown bag food program that provides at least one bag of food and toiletries a month
* mental health and depression screenings during the month of October
* free health services like pap smears and colon cancer screenings through a partnership with the Governor’s Wellmobile Program (http://nursing.umaryland.edu/offices/opo-ce/wellmobile.htm)
* a service coordinator for the residents at Green Ridge Houses, a HUD Section 8 community
* a City of Greenbelt prescription discount card, in partnership with CVS and Caremark
* a preferred provider program to help people get discounted in-home care
* public information through a quarterly newsletter, cable TV shows, and a monthly column in the Greenbelt News Review
The goal was to develop a program that gave seniors access to the services they would need to remain independent and at home as long as possible. Sometimes, of course, we know that people may at some point need more services than can be delivered at home. In those instances our program helps the family make informed choices.
How are you using public-private partnerships to provide services?
Our program is basically funded by taxpayer dollars, and in these trying financial times taxpayer dollars are at a premium. So we try to establish partnerships in the community to extend the services we can offer. For example, our new program called Backpack to Health, targeted at the Springhill Lake Elementary School and the surrounding community, has fifteen community partners. Springhill Lake sits in the middle of Empirian Village Apartments, the largest apartment complex on the East Coast, with over 2,000 apartments and 11,500 residents. Our partnerships there have allowed us to offer free after-fitness programs for children, twice-monthly visits from the Wellmobile, classes on diabetes and nutrition, and free produce once a month for 126 families. All this is provided at no cost to the city.
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