Senior Outreach Services: Client Services | Individual

Seniors welcome services, home care in their own homes
12/31/02
Julie E. Washington
Plain Dealer Reporter

Without the help of Senior Outreach Services, 74-year-old Mary Wimberly would not still be living in the Cleveland home where she was born. Health problems stemming from a car accident in 1985 and cancer have left Wimberly weak and unable to do much for herself. Her husband Franklin, 81, is in failing health as well. Their grown children visit occasionally, but are busy with their own family commitments.

In other circumstances, the Wimberlys would be living apart, with Mary in a nursing home. Instead, she’s comfortable in a reclining chair placed in her tidy dining room. Her short, plump fingers rest on a thick blanket pulled over her lap. Shoulder-length silver braids frame her smiling face.

Fellice Rivers, a Senior Outreach Services certified nursing assistant, visits the Wimberlys twice a week to help Mary with personal needs and do light housekeeping.

Senior Outreach Services, established in 1979, provides community outreach and support to help Cleveland’s seniors remain in their homes as long as possible, said Delores Lynch, the agency’s executive director.

“It’s a help,” Mary Wimberly said. “You need somebody to come in and do things for you. It makes you feel good.” The Wimberlys have been Senior Outreach clients since the late 1980s. Moving seniors out of familiar surroundings can lead to emotional and physical decline, Lunch said. Care in the home also costs less than a nursing home, Lynch said.

Senior Outreach Services handles between 350 and 400 clients in an average year. Most of them live in low-income neighborhoods on the city’s East Sde, she said. The agency provides homemakers, personal care aides and meals to seniors who need help. Homemakers do light housekeeping and cooking, while personal care aides do light housekeeping as well as assist with baths, hair care, errands and doctor appointments, Lynch said. Senior Outreach also serves meals and offers classes for seniors at St. James AME Church.

Senior Outreach receives city and stat funding, as well as foundation grants. Charitable contributions will allow the agency to serve more seniors and increase services offered to them, Lynch said. Senior Outreach benefits from contributions to the Holiday Spirit campaign.

Mary Wimberly knows how much the agency’s work is needed. Senior Outreach “helps in a lot of ways,” she said.

To read all of the Holiday Spirit stories online, go to www.cleveland.com/holidayspirit.
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: jwashington@plaind.com, 216-999-4852

© 2004 The Plain Dealer. Used with permission. Copyright 2004 cleveland.com. All Rights Reserved.

 
 

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