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Barb Quirk: Senior housing locator shows great promise

Barb Quirk  —  7/07/2008 5:30 am

This is so cool. I subscribe to a new magazine, Aging Well, and recently received a newsletter from the publishers about a new service called SNAPforSeniors (www.snapforseniors.com) that is being offered in conjunction with the magazine. It is a senior housing locator service, designed to address the most common questions and concerns about various senior resources all over the country.

The information is all on the computer, of course, so assistance is as near as your computer or your local library or your grandkids' desk.

There is a Medicare Report link that takes you directly to a facility's report card on Nursing Home Compare. This allows you to quickly check how a facility performs against quality measures. This link alone can save you from having to wade through pages of reports.

The locator goes beyond skilled nursing facilities and includes community-based residential facilities (CBRFs) and other levels of care-providing homes that are licensed and certified for Medicare. Home care and hospice information is also included along with some very practical stuff such as medical equipment suppliers.

This resource is particularly helpful if you are trying to make arrangements for care for someone far away. Each state has its own rules and regulations and, across the nation, there are 247 license types.

This is a free service. As it is developed, it promises to be a boon to all home care coordinators and family providers.

I am particularly interested in information about resources for older adults and their families as I am once again updating and compiling information for the "Over 60" resource book put out by the Area Agency on Aging of Dane County for the area's seniors and their families. This resource book has been published off and on since the early '70s and every other year for the last 20 years or so. The book has evolved from a 14-page listing that included "Dial a Prayer" and "Dial a Devotional" to a comprehensive overview of what is out there on a local and state level that makes life so rich for older adults and their families.

The question arises over the necessity of having both the Internet and the written sources available and the answer is yes. We do need both. Having Internet information available is great for the social worker in the hospital who is looking for specific discharge planning assistance and can use a quick guide to find durable medical equipment and home health assistance. It certainly has a place.

A written resource book, however, presents all of the options from transportation to social and educational and employment information. It is the difference between the old library card catalogs and the computerized information on titles and authors. (I still miss those beautiful old oak card catalogs).

A well-designed resource book invites people to browse through the various categories of opportunities that make life so rich and enjoyable. Here is where you find Theater Bus and the Plato Society as well as community and senior centers.

In this age of information technology, there is certainly room for all sorts of sources for resources and guides and we are so fortunate to have different options available.

Barbara Quirk is a Madison geriatric nurse practitioner.

Barb Quirk  —  7/07/2008 5:30 am