To receive help, you need to know where to look
February 24, 2019
By: Mark Harvey
Email: harvemb@dshs.wa.gov
Many of you who have paid any attention to these columns at all for the last 950+ weeks are painfully aware that I’ve been whining about the advent of the Baby Boomers onto the “long-term care” scene for most of them – And with a singular lack of results; indeed, to date, at the local, state and national levels, we’ve made minimal progress toward planning for the biggest demographic hiccup since the inception of pestilence, so I guess I just need to let that go.
And maybe the fact that most of us Boomers outgrew and outlived the ‘60’s is why “it” has come up again: We’ve gotten older, some of us have gotten wiser and a few of us have even figured out that immortality is, on a good day, unlikely. Whatever the reason, the question has come up again, “What the heck is ‘Information & Assistance’ and why do I care?”
Fair question. Here’s what’s worth remembering: You can call any of the numbers I’ll give you in a moment and ask just about anything that might relate to anyone 60 or better, or their families or their caregivers or folks who like them or folks who hope to be one someday – Just about anything.
The idea is to be able to tell you who to call or what web site to try or what paperwork you’ll need to do whatever it is you want to do, or where you might find help with whatever it is you might need or want help with. It doesn’t matter how much money you do or don’t have; the fact is, money doesn’t always help if you don’t know how to use it to get what you want, and what most of us want (most of the time) is to be able to stay where we are, doing pretty much what we’re doing now pretty much the same way we’re doing it – And if that doesn’t make sense to you, ask anybody 60 or better, and they’ll explain it to you, in short order.
But often, it isn’t about answering this or that question – It’s about listening to “the story.”
Most folks are pretty bright and pretty creative – If they knew WHAT they were looking for, they’d be halfway to getting it! – But the world of “help” makes Alice’s “Wonderland” look like a walk in the park. So, what needs to happen is for folks to tell their “story”- However long, however brief, the TRUE story – And then folks like us can offer some ideas of what might “help.”
Maybe it’s finding ways to stay out of a nursing home – Like Medicaid or in-home help or home health or or or.
Maybe it’s about understanding legal issues like durable powers of attorney or advance directives or guardianships or or or – What do you do and how do you do it.
Maybe it’s about trying to access or understand or navigate or SURVIVE “health insurance” – I don’t care how old you are!
Maybe you’re a “caregiver” – Not sure? OK, a “caregiver” is someone who is taking care of someone who needs to be taken care of, whether they like it or not – Sound like something you’re doing? And you’re not sure if you can keep on doing it, without some help? Or if you’re even doing it “right?”
Or maybe you’re suddenly raising some other family member’s kids – Now what??
Or maybe someone you care about is a nursing home or an assisted living facility or an adult family home – Or is about to be – And you have some questions or worries?
Or you don’t know if you need a will?
Or you’re worried about your sister in Selma or your auntie in Anchorage?
Or the Medicare stuff you got in the mail doesn’t make ANY sense – Again.
Or Mom is going to be discharged from the hospital tomorrow morning and you have no idea what to do, how to do it or what language the discharge planner is even speaking.
Or maybe you’re just trying to plan for the day that you might need some “help,” and you’d just as soon that the people you purport to love don’t have to come unglued in the middle of a crisis and try to invent The Wheel.
Or or or.
Sure, we have all kinds of impressive-sounding programs with intimidating acronyms, but do you really care? No, you don’t; at least, not right now. What you care about is knowing who you can call that can (and WILL!) help you figure out what “help” might look like, or how you’d even know it if you’d found it.
And this is all free; Yes, some services and agencies have costs or eligibility criteria or whatnot, but the human piece – The human interaction – Is completely, and utterly, free.
So, here we all are, 950+ weeks older – I’m going to start lying to you now? Not likely.
Some years ago, I was in the middle of a family crisis with a loved one – It was all too close and I couldn’t think! – So, I turned to these same people, some of them people whom I’d worked with for years, and here’s what I can tell you about what happened to me:
I wouldn’t have made it without them.
Now, here are those phone numbers I promised you:
- For the Port Townsend/East Jefferson area: 360-385-2552/1-800-801-0050.
- For the Port Angeles/Sequim area: 360-42-3221/1-800-801-0070.
- For the Forks/West End area: 360-374-9496/1-888-571-6559.
This won’t hurt. I promise.