I read with a great deal of amusement, the article on the officials at senior centers delivering a meal.
I really wonder if they have a grip on reality when it comes to our destitute and housebound senior residents.
Did they deliver to the house with the 14 cats and no litter box? Did they deliver to the lady who is almost completely deaf and without teeth? Did they walk up the hills to the people whose driveways have washed out? Have they learned which houses have no numbers and no one ever visits the 90-year-old lady that lives alone with no utilities because she didn”t know how to call for an assist? Do any of them know which of the clients love ethnic foods when there is an extra food delivery? Not bloody likely! Nor have they visited a home where the client has died or committed suicide and they have to call it in to their center and the authorities.
This is the real world of our seniors in this county and it”s truly a shame. Are we any worse than any other county? Probably not, but certainly not any better. Why are we not having a social worker stationed with a clerk at every senior center to help head off these awful situations and make the home visits to make sure these helpless people are not getting victimized by their families or caregivers.
It sounds like a lot but it is still less expensive than putting these people in nursing homes. Shame on us! How easy it is to make nice and gladhand in public but not take a sincere aggressive stance on this problem. If we can”t do it for these elders now, what do people think is going to happen to them when they age and an illness or a financial downturn puts them in the same situation?
Alan Winter
Upper Lake
