Affordable In-Home Care

Routine and necessary tasks such as shopping, house-cleaning, meal planning and preparation or bathing can become overwhelming for an older adult who is frail or disabled. Family and Children's Services of Central Maryland (FCS) is a private, non-profit agency that has provided these types of services to frail and disabled adults for many years, but the demographic trends in Howard County are starting to overwhelm the agency's resources.

"A couple of years ago," says Sallie Hedenstad, director of Family and Children's Services, "we had about 90 to 100 clients. Now we have over 300, and it's hard to keep up." Through the Aging-In-Place Initiative, FCS has received funding to provide in-home services by nurses and aides to an additional 35 clients. But the benefits are much broader. The coordination and collaboration with other components of the Initiative, such as home repair and mental health services, "expands our ability to help older people stay in their homes," Hedenstad says. For example, if an FCS staff person makes a home visit and finds that the client has had a fall, or is depressed, it is easy to tap the Initiative's other components - such as home repair or mental health services - to assist the client.

An example of the synergy that comes from the Aging-In-Place Initiative is the case of a 74-year-old grandmother who is dependent on oxygen 24 hours a day and suffers from multiple illnesses including heart problems and diabetes. On a very limited income, she lives with and cares for her 8-year-old granddaughter, and was taking medications once a day instead of twice because she could not afford to pay for more. After being referred to the Initiative by another program that had run out of money, she was able to get assistance in paying for medications, as well as in-home help with personal care such as bathing and dressing, along with housekeeping, shopping and meal preparation.