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Agency on Aging serving growing population

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News from Area VI Agency on Aging

POLSON — As 2014 draws to a close, we at Area VI Agency on Aging look back on our year with a mixture of pride and frustration. We are a charitable 501 (c) 3 non-profit with the goal of helping our senior and disabled population with the challenges of remaining healthy and independent for as long as possible. We are extremely proud of our achievements in assisting the nutrition programs in 24 senior centers and tribal nutrition sites in our four counties of Lake, Lincoln, Mineral and Sanders. Our Long Term Care Ombudsmen protect the rights and dignity of residents in 12 nursing homes and assisted living facilities. Our Retired and Senior Volunteer Program currently reports 357 volunteers serving at 92 sites in five counties. Our Foster Grandparent Program currently provides opportunities for 62 volunteers to help children at 25 sites in six counties. Our Information and Assistance staff handled 4,320 calls in 2014, helping clients locate resources ranging from housework, errands, and to transportation for applying for financial assistance. Our Certified State Health Insurance Assistance Counselors help people with the maze of Medicare. During this past Open Enrollment we helped almost 1,000 clients compare their drug and health plans and saved beneficiaries over $100,000.

We hope to continue providing these many services to our seniors. Unfortunately funding sources for agencies like ours are decreasing nationwide, at the same time that the aging population is growing by leaps and bounds as the Baby Boomer generation ages into our services. We are relying more and more on grants and donations from private sources, which are getting increasingly difficult to get. This is the source of our frustration.

We hope you’ll let your newly elected and returning representatives know that we as a society value our older generations and place a high priority on funding programs to care for them. Also, if you are in a position to decide where donations are made, we hope you’ll consider our local needs as well as the “big boys” in the charity world. We’d like to thank all those who have helped us keep our agency in action, and wish all readers a wonderful holiday season and a joyous New Year. You can reach us at 1 (800) 551-3191 or (406) 883-7284.

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