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Grant will help get services to seniors

BY KAREN SHIDELER

The Wichita Eagle

A new $1.3 million grant will provide training for a network of "gatekeepers," ranging from Meals on Wheels drivers to mail carriers and bank tellers, to be on the lookout for senior citizens who might need help.

The three-year grant to the Mental Health Association of South Central Kansas was announced Friday.

Don Strong, the association's director of aging services, said the Mid-Kansas Senior Outreach Gatekeeper program will train people to take on the role that extended family members did in the past, checking in on older people who live alone to make sure they're OK and to find help when they're not.

The gatekeepers will refer people to the association and will accompany whoever responds, so the older person isn't visited by a stranger.

The first year's funding is $406,386, according to the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The Mental Health Association was one of 10 groups to be funded.

Strong said part of the funding, which begins Oct. 1, will pay for five full-time positions and one half-time position at the Mental Health Association, Comcare of Sedgwick County and the United Way of the Plains. United Way's 211 center will handle calls that don't come in during business hours.

About 14,000 senior citizens live alone and independently in Sedgwick County, he said. Physical disabilities such as vision impairment, or mental problems such as depression, can put them further at risk for social isolation, suicide, substance abuse and neglect or abuse by others.

For someone who's socially isolated and lacks transportation, the solution may be connecting him or her with a case manager at the Sedgwick County Department on Aging. For someone in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, referrals to several agencies might be appropriate, Strong said.

"We're not trying to take over other people's jobs," Strong said, but to make sure services get to those who need them.

Reach Karen Shideler at 316-268-6674 or kshideler@wichitaeagle.com.