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-- Programs and Services -- Contact Information Elder Services’ 30 years of growth and change
Thirty years ago, there were seven home care corporations across the state providing various services to eligible individuals age 60 and over. The assistant secretary of the Massachusetts Office of Elder Affairs met with the Berkshire County Commissioners to propose that another private, non-profit home care corporation be started in Berkshire County. The Commission voted to allocate $16,000 in seed money for the new corporation, and appointed a board of directors, who hired Frederick H. Whitham, wartime aviator, businessman and hospital administrator, to be Berkshire Home Care Corporation’s first executive director. From the beginning, Whitham was dedicated to helping elders live in dignity and independence with the best possible quality of life. He knew how to select good staff and empower them to do their jobs with as much independence as possible, while providing sound administrative support and guidance.
In 1974 the organization consisted of one desk and one telephone in an office in a house on Wendell Avenue, with three employees determined to find household help for frail homebound elders.
Today, Elder Services of Berkshire County, Inc., as the agency is now known, has 114 employees and more than 500 volunteers to carry out the founder’s plan with a network of services from Meals on Wheels to personal care.
Whitham said in a 1979 review of the agency’s first five years that he developed an ever-expanding array of services to offer elders the option of staying in their own homes “when the going got tough.”
“We really started from scratch, because there were very few services for the elderly available in Berkshire County. We had to create many of them,” he said.
In response to local needs, the agency initially contracted for services to help elders with household chores. It soon began to respond to other needs with contracts for a number of additional services – home health assistance, occupational therapy, legal counseling, handyman chores and transportation. Volunteers were recruited to serve as friendly visitors and companions, to offer telephone reassurance, and to assist in offering an employment program, clinics and mental health counseling. Meals on Wheels became another service, and last year supplied its two millionth meal to seniors. Volunteer ombudsmen were added later to visit patients in nursing homes and advocate for their rights.
When in 1981 it was clear that the agency was offering much more than home care services, its name was changed to Elder Services of Berkshire County, Inc. As the organization grew and diversified, Whitham and his expanding staff moved several times to offices and storefronts in downtown Pittsfield. They also opened additional offices in North Adams and Great Barrington. In 1991, the Pittsfield office moved to 66 Wendell Avenue, next door to the house where it had started. The other locations were consolidated into the Wendell Avenue office in 1997.
Catherine R. May joined the staff in 1981 as a supervisor of volunteers. She next served as home care manager and then as assistant director until Whitham retired in 1989. May was executive director until she retired last year. She was succeeded by Robert P. Dean, who had served four years as director of client services.
“Fred got the organization up and running with the purpose of serving elders,” May said in an interview. “The agency contracts for the purchase of services from homemaker, personal care and home health aide agencies, among others. From the onset, the idea was that the agency’s revenues would go to provide services for elders. Keeping elders at home is what this is all about. We developed and established a philosophy of elder autonomy that respects elders’ desire to stay in their own homes as long as possible. This is really community-based long-term care.”
May cited some of the major accomplishments during her years with the agency. These included replacing catering services with Elder Services' central Meals on Wheels kitchen in Lanesboro; developing a computerized information and referral department with a data base of hundreds of possible responses to elder requests for information and services; and instituting nursing home screening by Elder Services’ nurses.
Dean is leading the agency in enhancing its reputation as a safety net for elders throughout Berkshire County.
“Since I joined Elder Services in 1999 as director of client services, several new programs and initiatives have been developed to continue to better serve elders and their caregivers,” he said.
Dean cited the success of a Community Choices Initiative introduced in 2001 offering an enriched package of community-based services designed to enable frail elders who are Medicaid-eligible to avoid or delay nursing home placement. The enhanced service package may include case management; assistance with personal grooming, dressing, toileting, laundry, meal preparation or housework; heavier cleaning, adaptive equipment; transportation; Meals on Wheels; supportive day programs, and/or companionship.
Dean said that in July, the Massachusetts legislature adopted measures to allow more elders to be eligible, through the Medicaid Home and Community-based Waiver Program, to receive a higher level of service comparable to that offered by Community Choices. The language, which was incorporated into the FY 2005 state budget, authorizes Elder Affairs to seek to expand the income eligibility criteria for the Waiver program, which is a Federal-state program that expands the normal range of Medicaid long-term-care services considered “medically necessary,” from $769 a month to the Federal maximum of $1,656 a month. This expansion would give more elders the choice of receiving their long-term care services at home or in a community-based setting.
Other innovations cited by Dean:
• A Personal Care Assistance Program, which began serving elders last year, makes it possible for eligible individuals to have more control over the services they receive by allowing them to hire, supervise and schedule their own personal care workers, and to receive more hours of care than would otherwise be possible.
• More help is available for caregivers, including education and information, respite care and support groups. A five-part countywide caregiver training program will be offered soon.
• The Council on Aging (COA) Caregiver Fund was established this year to assist each town’s COA in identifying the needs of caregivers and to provide access to funds to support them.
• A restructured Senior Community Service Employment Program assists men and women age 55 or older to learn new job skills and find meaningful employment.
• In 2000, Supportive Housing was begun at Providence Court in Pittsfield. It provides residential coordination, a meal site and 24-hour emergency personal care for residents. Additional enriched housing is planned in Lee with renovation of the old Lee Central School with Federal and state funds. These elder housing units will be enhanced with a meal site, enriched services, and recreational facilities.
“We continue to look for further opportunities at other housing locations where we might have a greater presence to better serve elders,” Dean said.
“As we go forward, we are pleased that as a result of strong advocacy by elders and their advocates, the Prescription Advantage Plan has been funded at $110 million for this year, and that state funding for most elder line items, including those provided by Elder Services, has been maintained or slightly increased.”
“Elder Services celebrates its 30th anniversary with a strong commitment to continue to provide the highest level of service to Berkshire elders and their caregivers and to advocate for their ever-evolving needs,” he added.