Cleveland Real Estate News

Reading the newspaper before it hits the streets is easier now with the Web. I remember being in awe on my first visit to New York City in the ’70s as my relative’s father headed out for the New York Times (and lox and bagels!) at eleven pm one Saturday. So tonight I was browsing The Washington Post. One article both intrigued and made sense. It focuses on senior services for people who don’t want to leave their homes, who want to remain independent.  But they can’t drive anymore. The article is called A Community Built on Shared Need.  I’m not talking about in house health care visitors (althought that can be a part of it) or Meals on Wheels. These organizations are built around the idea, as the article states, of a concierge service.

For an annual fee, these organizations use a small professional staff and volunteers to arrange members’ transportation to the doctor’s office or the grocery store, to find in-home medical care or to compile a list of reliable contractors who do home repairs at a discount. Modeled on the idea of a hotel’s concierge service or a village’s face-to-face volunteerism, the organization is part of a broader strategy to promote “aging in place” as an alternative to retirement homes.

DC has money and an abundant population, but there still seem to only be a few of these types of grass roots organizations in that area to date. I had to check to see if we have anything like it here. And it also made me think about volunteer possibilities in our own communities.

First, the existing organizations. I found Always Best Care Senior Services  or in Cleveland, ABC Cleveland Ohio. There is a phone number and I’m going to call and ask some questions. But of course it’s now Sunday!  They sound more traditional on paper (er, on the Web), but they do say they are involved in both assisted living and personal in home care:

At Always Best Care Senior Services we can create a tailored In-Home Care package, customized for the senior’s needs. Care can be provided on an hourly or daily basis, with services available including; companionship, meal preparation, light housekeeping, grocery shopping, transportation, laundry, recreational activities and more.

The difference between what The Post  seems to be describing and ABC Cleveland is how it’s arranged. It sounds like the DC area groups being formed are organized by community rather than individually.

It begs the question about neighborhood groups. Block clubs. When I lived in the DC area there were decidedly few block clubs. When I lived in Rockville there were plenty of civic organizations (think Ohio City and ESOP and Tremont). I was very active in my area and even served as president of the civic group for a few years. But most of the wider DC area didn’t seem to be organized that way. We are lucky here to have good examples of block club and neighborhood organizations that could certainly provide this type of additional grass roots support. I wonder if any of them already do this?  I know on an ad hoc level, if an Ohio City resident were to type on the OC Yahoo! group that they needed to go to the doctors, someone would volunteer to take them. 

I wonder however, if neighborhoods became active in providing voluntarily or supporting a profess’l group that does it, if it might not make the quality of life for  aging residents good enough so they can stay in their homes without as many worries about how things are going to get done?

When my Mother was living alone in the family home in Strongsville and unable to drive or get around on her own, there were no such vehicles available for her. In fact, that is one of the reasons I moved back to Cleveland.

Do any of you know of an active transition in place type of organization here? When I googled it, ABC was the only one that souned vaguely like the grass roots groups discussed in the Post — and I got all the way to page five of Google without finding more.

The Post article also talked about how they are trying to implement this in a community in VIrginia that differs from most places that utilize one. Most exist where transportation is accessible (public). This Virginia community is, uh, out in the boonies, for a lack of a better term. Residents there are hoping it will work and allow them to stay in their homes.

What do you think about this kind of help in our area?  I’ll let you know if I find any additional information next week, when I can call around during business hours.   Peace Out - 3C

Update: So far I have left a few voice mail messages and sent emails, will keep following up on this as the week goes on and as I get more information.

I did find a really good resource page at the City of Cleveland site regarding seniors through their department on aging. You can find links to all sorts of organizations. One is called RSVP, a group of volunteers who are retired seniors, and one of their missions is to help the home bound senior. It’s a ’seniors helping seniors’ volunteer effort which sounds like a win-win yes? I also found that there is a dept. of aging advisory council rep in each political ward in the City. So if you were to call your council office they would be able to direct you to that person.  You can go here and see the name of the current Advisory Board Rep in your Ward.

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