Beaver Island Michigan

Beaver Island Seniors, their caregivers and the community are invited to attend a meeting with Shirley Gillespie, Executive Director of the Charlevoix County Commission on Aging, Roman Hank, Assistant Director, and Nancy Ferguson, District 5 Charlevoix County Commissioner to review the details of a new program for providing in-home care services to Beaver Island Seniors.

Monday, July 11, 9:00am at the Beaver Island Community Center, upstairs in the Hangout. Refreshments provided.

this mtg may have slipped your attention as it isn't on the "front page " of the forum.

It is an important mtg folks.I say this because there are now THREE people coming "over" to tell us about the "new " plan.

I am fascinated by the possibility of something that might work here on Beaver (tax paying to charlevoix county) Island

. Something that perchance would allow our seniors to be at home with assistance...something that IF implemented would then provide coverage if the "worker" needed time off...I'm getting ahead of myself...no body indicated it would be a person. I mean it can't be that , right ? We had a perfectly good crna , a homeowner no less (!) who had her hours CUT to the point she couldn't stay here.

With three people here to hear our concerns maybe one of them will do something about said concerns. My husband calls me polly ( for Pollyanna).

At the LAST mtg concerns were raised and not addressed later, despite mtg phone calls , emails and letters.

We do not need a mtg to discuss having a mtg.

With no idea of the agenda , we can't come up with appropriate questions....so unless we're johnny on the spot with a wealth of info including rapid understanding of NEW plans then our questions will come "later"...and the answers even later than that if at all.

Given who/where we are, couldn't we have an idea what the new PLAN is BEFORE the mtg.? Perhaps it is posted somewhere...I am a techno twit...I don't scroll around hoping to glean .

My apologies if it is /was blatently posted and I missed it.

Will I be there at the mtg tomorrow ...sure ! However I am a first responder with BIEMS and may be out helping "to save lives" as I am on call . I wanted my voice heard and perhaps help folks get some queries lined up , in case I am not at mtg.

optimistically ( based on nothing )
pam moxham

Pam, thanks for bringing this notice back to the top. Certainly short notice with little input on the date during the busy summer season with many more meetings that day.

Since we have not heard back from our letters sent in February to the County Commissioners or the April meeting with Commissioner Ferguson who explained that while she is our county representative; she was not the county's COA representative but on the Building and Grounds Committee. The lack of in-home services have kept elders away this summer with the exception of when family members could be present during vacations. Let's see what they have in mind for $76,000 taxes paid by islanders for in-home services. Our island's one in-home care provider's position still has not been posted since Pam Nicholas left in April. We fought hard years ago to enable our seniors to have equal access to county COA services. How will they repair the lost trust in a broken system?

thanks Joe for filming this ...as noted it was pretty short notice so hopefully more folks could become informed , even if unable to attend
this am.

PostPosted: Wed Jul 27, 2016 3:31 pm
Post subject: COA Community Meeting re: Senior Services 8/18 @9am! Reply with quote
Beaver Island Seniors, their caregivers and the community are invited to meet once again to review and provide feedback on a Revised Draft of a new Reimbursement Program from the Charlevoix County Commission on Aging for providing in-home care services to Beaver Island Seniors. Shirley Gillespie, Executive Director of the Charlevoix County Commission on Aging,
Roman Hank, Assistant Director, and Nancy Ferguson, District 5 Charlevoix County Commissioner will be presenting and discussing.

Thursday, August 18, 9:00am at the Beaver Island Community Center, upstairs in the Hangout. Refreshments provided.
_________________
Ann T. Partridge
The Commission on Aging,
Serving Seniors of Charlevoix County.

Islanders and summer residents, please attend. At the last meeting, the island elders were not offered a CENA who is trained in in-home care but a voucher for $40.00/month for one or two elders at one residence. Our one certified CENA left in April. This meeting is COA's response to those who attended the previous meeting and expressed that COA's response was not adequate. The County Commissioners still have not addressed the 80+ letters from islanders. Let's see what they have to offer islanders this time. Will it measure up to what is offered to mainland elders? We will see on August 18th.