The Tartan Online
Waldron to aid elderly
By Noelle Selb
nselb@radford.edu
February 01, 2005
It is easy to take for granted the resonating call of the Muse clock alerting students when they are late for class, the unmistakable whistle of the train passing through Radford at night, the voice of the waitress asking for an order. However, for many elderly in the New River Valley, these sounds are silenced.
In an attempt to reach out to the community to ease this problem and other health issues affecting older adults in the area, the Carlot Endowment recently awarded Waldron College of Health and Human Services over $12,694 to aid the lower-income adults in Southwestern Virginia.
The endowment was created in memory of the late professor of emeritus of design, Fernande Gard, by her mother Fernande Carlot Gard and her grandfather Albert Carlot, and is dispensed by the RU Foundation.
The money was apportioned to three programs that professors from Waldron College supported. These programs include Dr. Ken Cox’s “Hearing Healthcare services for the Needy Elderly in Southwest Virginia,” Dr. Mary Hope Gibson’s “Chronic Illness Clinic,” and Dr. Virginia Burgraff and Grace Shortt’s “Case Management and Assessment of Rural Elderly (CARE) Project.”
In an effort to serve the uninsured and underinsured adults over 55 years old, the CARE program will use case management to serve older adults in the Dublin, Pulaski and Radford City areas. Burgraff describes case management as an overall process where the care providers look at the patient as a whole and try to meet his or her needs, in addition to performing a functional assessment.
In her piece of the grant, Burgraff is using graduate student Sarah Gilbert, to implement the functional assessment of patients, as well as looking at other aspects of health, such as depression, sleep and eating.
“Functional assessment means I can perform activities of daily living, which include cooking, bathing, toileting. Advanced activities of daily living include going to the store to buy food, preparing my meals, using the telephone. If I can’t do these things, then are there resources in the community that can assist me?” Burgraff explained.
Gilbert, a Registered Nurse who graduated from RU in 1980 with a degree in nursing, mentioned that the types of assessments the patients will undergo will include a standard assessment, which encompasses information about their living situation, the availability of transportation, as well as the patient’s ability to perform the functions of everyday living, such as grocery shopping.
Cox’s program provides an important service to the elderly in the community yet focuses more on a physical need than a functional need. For the two and a half years since funding to provide hearing aids for the local Lion’s Club was discontinued, Cox has been trying to re-establish the grant to provide hearing aids for Southwest Virginia.
Since most insurance companies do not pay for hearing aids and others only pay a portion of the cost, many of the individuals on the waiting list to receive hearing aids have done without any sort of hearing device for over two years. The Carlot Endowment is set up to provide money to purchase hearing aids from the Starkey Hear Now Foundation, which provides assistance to those with financial need.
Cox’s “Hearing Healthcare Services for the Needy Elderly in Southwest Virginia” program will provide 20 hearing aids over the course of the next six months to a year for those who qualify based on financial need as well as who meet the age requirements.
Graduate students who participate in the audiology clinic within the RU clinics will participate in the counseling, fitting and follow-up of the eligible older adults involved in the program. They will work with audiologist Joanne Dillon, an RU graduate and a licensed audiologist and hearing aid specialist.
Cox has also submitted a large grant for the Lions of Virginia Foundation which is in the process of being reviewed. If the money is granted, Cox says that it would help a lot more people in the community.
Gibson’s “Hearing Healthcare Services for the Needy Elderly in Southwest Virginia” received $4,594 to assist primary health care services in RU Clinics for older adults. The aspiration of Gibson’s project is to prevent complications which could arise from existing health conditions and to prevent contracting new illnesses among clients unable to afford health services in other locations.
Through the Carlot Endowment, students and their professors implementing these programs can follow through to the mission statement of the RU School of Nursing and fellow departments within Waldron College, helping a generation that comprises 11 to 17 percent of the population in the NRV.
