Seniors Count Partnership

The Seniors Count Partnership is a convener and catalyst for community based outreach and action – to redefine and ensure independence for older people, and in doing so, create a better life for all.  This Partnership works to ensure that each older adult receives the help that he or she needs to maintain his or her independence, and to safely live out their lives with dignity and in the manner they choose. The coalition of partners is highly participatory and inclusive, involving representatives from public sector agencies, nonprofit senior service provider agencies, elected officials, local businesses, and seniors and their caregivers. The partnership’s goals are to: raise awareness of the problems facing seniors; leverage services to eliminate gaps and increase choice and access; and increase financial and human resources to assist seniors.

Successes:

• Partnered with the Manchester Regional Committee on Aging to develop the Aging Sensitivity Curriculum, now taught to almost 3000 students at two local high schools. New Hampshire Public TV, a member of the Partnership, then made it available through its educational “knowledge network” to increase the availability of the curriculum across the area.
• With the Partnership as a catalyst, the Dartmouth Medical School continuing education series for physicians focused entirely on aging in 2007, with the theme “The New Thinking About Aging: Fostering Health – Coping with Frailty.” The seventh and final session of the series was delivered by the Seniors Count Partnership on “Seniors Count: Imagine a Senior Friendly Community.”
• During the Partnership’s twice-yearly Seasonal Clean-up events, more than 400 volunteers from schools, businesses, the Red Cross and youth groups performed home maintenance chores for over 300 seniors. The Partnership’s Home Maintenance committee created a safety checklist for seniors and their families then matched them with volunteer “handy people” who completed needed repairs.
• Through the Partnership’s “Adopt-a-Senior” project, students from St. Anselm’s College were recruited and matched with frail seniors.

Real Life Impact:

“I don’t need a pill.  I just need some help!”  Seventy year old Ernie is a proud veteran who lives in the Manchester home he has owned for more than 50 years.   Because of limited income and frailty, plus multiple medical problems, much needed repairs to his home and yard had been neglected.  When he voiced his growing concerns about his inability to maintain his home, his doctor wanted to treat him for anxiety and depression with medication.  Ernie refused, stating he did not need more medicine, just a helping hand!    And help he received, through the Seniors Count Partnership during a spring clean-up project.  The Partnership coordinated a team of high school students who helped to stain his deck, put up a fence, weatherproof his foundation and paint his living room ceiling.  A Flexible Spending Fund created by the Partnership purchased a new front door for him to replace one warped by flooding.  Ernie is one of hundreds helped by the Seniors Count Home Maintenance initiative, which has created a collaborative mechanism by which groups come together to address recurring home maintenance needs of elderly home owners.