Help for Elderly
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They don’t offer “quick-fix” solutions, but the Senior Companion Program is proving that helping elderly shut-ins with everyday tasks doesn’t have to be “risky business” (May 30). The Senior Companion Program has been delivering individual attention to needy clients’ doorsteps for three decades. Now it is part of President Clinton’s National Senior Service Corps.
More than 2,200 homebound elderly Californians, including 160 Angelenos, get help with simple household chores, join their companions for shopping trips and doctors’ visits or spend time “just talking” as friends. Federally funded and locally sponsored by nonprofit organizations such as the Volunteer Center of Los Angeles, senior companions save taxpayers nationwide an estimated $150 million in out-of-home care expenses. Companions, who are low-income and at least 60 years old, remain actively involved in their communities and gain new friends.
For information about the Senior Companion Program, call the Corporation for National Service at (310) 235-7421.
MICHAEL WOO
Western States Director
Corporation for National Service
Los Angeles
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