Do you help an older adult with any of the following tasks: preparing meals, shopping, personal care, giving medications, or providing rides to medical appointments? If you answered yes to any of the above questions then you are a caregiver—someone who assists another person, usually a family member with managing the tasks of daily living. More and more Americans find themselves juggling the responsibilities of work with the demands of caring for an aging parent or spouse.
Help is on the way! Pathways and Protocols is a web based guide to services for older adults in Guilford County. It utilizes user friendly language to explain and help navigate older adults, their caregivers and service providers through the maze of the services, programs and agencies that serve older adults in Guilford County. Pathways and Protocols is organized around seven types of pathways to a myriad of services arranged according to the following topics: Safety, Service Access, Basic Needs, Caregiving, Health Care, Grief or Loss and Service Complaint. A visit to the website reveals a list of statements ranging from, “I need a ride” and “I am caring for Mom and am all stressed out” to “My prescriptions cost too much” that help users identify which service pathway they need to explore to get the specific assistance that they need. Once the user has selected the statement that most closely matches their question or need they are linked to a user friendly page that explains in clear and concise language the service options that exists and provides them with the keys or protocols that open the doors to services.
First unveiled in 2005 Pathways and Protocols was created by the Guilford County Senior Services Roundtable. The Roundtable is a collaborative of a wide range of agencies and organizations that serve older adults. Roundtable members came together recognizing that many older adults and their caregivers were confused by the professional terminology and jargon that accompanies aging services and often did not know where to start when trying to access service. They also quickly learned that even as service providers they were often misinformed or mistaken about what services were available and how to make appropriate referrals. There was also no central information repository for community service information and they discovered that communication and coordination was frequently lacking between service providers which resulted in further fragmentation of services. A grant from the Moses Cone/Wesley Long Community Health Foundation made it possible for the Roundtable to develop this web based guide to assist not only their clients, the older adults and caregivers of our community, but the service professionals who assist them with referrals and information as well. |
