Supportive Services Aides

Six years ago Maysville Initiatives began providing aides for a HUD “Resident Opportunity for Self-Sufficiency” (ROSS) Grant to assist low-income elderly and/or disabled residents of Maysville’s Housing Authority. The program has created local jobs and lowered Medicare/Medicaid costs for elderly clients by offering non-medical support to help them continue living independently rather than go to a nursing home.
We currently serve 120 low-income elderly and/or disabled clients. Some are able to take care of themselves at this point. Their “support” is weekly or monthly re-assessment visits. At the other extreme, approximately 30 clients are either housebound or otherwise physically disabled to the point that they are able to continue to live independently only if our non-medical, supportive services are available.
Keeping low-income frail elderly clients out of emergency rooms and expensive nursing home care for an extra few years by helping with meal preparation, housekeeping, errands, keeping medical appointments, etc., saves taxpayers big money. It creates jobs. It also improves the quality of life for clients. The average nursing home cost in five surrounding counties was $148.38 /per day/per person or $54,000/year [2007 rates!].

We have had a HUD grant of +/- $83,333 per year for Supportive Services. The grant expires in November of 2011. We estimate 30 of our clients will need nursing home placement when they no longer have our supportive services. The cost would be 30 times $54,000, or $1.6 million. We’re actually providing Supportive Services to 120 low-income, elderly folks each year for less than what it would cost to have TWO of them in the nursing home.

We want to keep the program alive and successful until our model of supportive services can be more widely adopted. We’re organized. We know what works. We’re committed to the goals of increasing the quality of life for our low-income seniors and allowing them to age in place. There is a better way for our society to take care of our elders: taking care of small things before they mushroom into big, expensive things!

We are looking for $100,000/yr to continue services to our clients.