Maximizing service to Seniors

Seniors find themselves fulfilling many different roles. Sometimes they are called upon to be caregivers to their spouses, older family members, and on occasion even younger family members such as grandchildren. Seniors can also be care receivers. This can occur for a variety of reasons such as illness, like dementia or Alzheimer’s or something as simple as recovering from an injury. After retiring some seniors find themselves with time on their hands and become volunteers. Madison County Office for the Aging, Inc. is a 30 year old not for profit which helps seniors in our rural upstate New York communities effectively meet each of these roles. Although our name may imply we are not part of county government.

With the Microsoft donations we have been able to purchase through Tech-soup we have improved the services which we provide as well as the ability to reach more people. The purchase of Microsoft Office has allowed us to develop an Access based database which has many functions and provides all departments within our agency a way to stay informed regarding all the services a client may be receiving. Each service department has their own section to record the type of service provided, when, as well as who provided it. The main client page has the date of most the recent service per department displayed. Statistical information required by the state was a paper trail night mare. The database now gives us the ability to submit this information to the state without having to buy an expensive reporting system. This information is easily collected and sent quarterly.

The Volunteer Transportation Program can record each ride a senior receives. They track the origin and destination of each ride and the volunteer driver who provides the ride. Based upon that information, sheets are sent to each driver for reimbursement at the end of the month by mail or e-mail which has helped reduce our postage costs. The forms are filled out by the volunteers , returned and entered by the Volunteer transportation coordinator into the database. The information provided is then used to run reports for reimbursement to drivers, log the hours each volunteer provided and calculate the number of miles driven in a month.

The SNACK Program (Senior Nutrition and Country Kitchen) provides meals to homebound seniors and congregate meal sites. Due to the variety of nutritional needs each senior has, we needed the ability to design a database to track these needs. We successfully achieved this with Access and we now have the ability to compile delivery route information based on whether a senior eats at home or attends a site. The route information assists in the packing of meals in the kitchen as well as where the driver must stop. The site managers are given a report each month to record attendance at the site on any particular day. The information is entered into the database at the end of each month.

EISEP (Expanded In-home Services for the Elderly Program) has a variety of tracking challenges. The database was designed with this in mind. We can track which home care agency each senior receives services from, as well as what days the aides visit them. We also are able to tell if they have a lifeline. The database can track income information to determine if a client must cost share their services or not. We can also track their ADL (Activities of Daily Living) and IADL (Instrumental Activities of Daily Living) information easily. This is state required information for clients participating in this EISEP program.

Above are just some of the programs which we offer. The state has implemented increased tracking of caregivers, therefore we have had to adapt the database to the constantly changing reporting requirements. Access gives us that flexibility. We have been able to incorporate a section dedicated to caregivers and the associated reporting requirements. When first opening the database you can immediately see any other clients on the database who have an association with that particular client. With the click of a button you can be transferred from one client’s record to another.

Another section of each client’s record allows us to record any money which comes into the office. Therefore we can track fund drive donations, client cost share amounts and program donations. The fund drive mailings we have produced have saved us a lot of tracking time and helped us to send multiple requests per year. This has helped to increase fund drive contributions and has stopped our requesting from those who have already contributed to the agency. Plus at the end of the year we can send tax support documentation to our donors.

We are also able to produce mailing labels and letters from the database that include the client’s name and address. Clients who participate in volunteering, support groups or a variety of other activities are marked in the mailing section of the database. When a mailing needs to be produced for an activity it can be generated from the database eliminating the need to hand track who should receive it.

Because some of our donors are businesses which require different tracking methods and fund drive letters the database needed to be adaptable. The business portion of our database provides that function. We are able to associate one or several contacts to a business record allowing mailings to be associated with each contact. This helps eliminate the need to list each business multiple times.

We have recently started using Microsoft Web Expressions to create and maintain our website. This is a useful tool to let people know what our monthly menus will be as well as any activities that we have planned. We are also able to provide additional information and links to service providers who might be able to help the seniors. This is one area which we look forward to increasing our development.

Microsoft Business Server 2003 for Small Business assisted in our communication abilities. We are able to send interoffice e-mails, which can be tailored as to whether they need to go to a specific person or group of people. All the departments have an e-mail address which can send e-mails outside of the office. This has provided increased communication with the state, volunteers, and outside agencies. We have been able to set up an Outlook based office calendar to alert people as to when staff are in or out of the office. This assists the receptionist when she is determining which staff can most effectively assist a client.

We at Madison County Office for the Aging, Inc. have been very fortunate to have been referred to Tech-soup. It has allowed us to take advantage of the extremely generous donations which Microsoft has provided. This has given us the opportunity to keep up to date with the latest technology resulting in expanded services to the seniors in our community.