Helping Seniors Living On the Edge:
An Interview with Jacqueline Ward

Aired November 9, 1999

David C. Barnett–Joining us on the phone is Jacqueline Ward, a manager for community-based programs for Cuyahoga Health and Nutrition, a division of the county's Department of Health and Human Services. Good morning, Ms. Ward.

Jacqueline Ward–Good morning.

DCB–To what extent do you serve this segment of our society, older people living on the edge?

JW–Well, we have Medicaid and health programs and a food stamp benefit available to seniors. We serve currently about 35,000 with some kind of supplemental Medicaid or medical coverage, and about 20,000 seniors are receiving a food stamp benefit from our agency.

DCB–Concerns about the growth of that population?

JW–We believe that there are seniors out there who are not taking advantage of our programs. We believe, just in the medical benefit side of things, that there's about 15,000 seniors we haven't reached yet with the program. It's a benefit in particular that pays their Medicare premiums, co-payments and deductibles and it's worth about $546 a month to a senior to be receiving this benefit.

DCB–We've heard this before about there being benefits available but people don't know about them. Are you sensing that this is a strictly communication problem?

JW–We think it's partly a communication problem, it's partly an access problem-

DCB–How so an access problem?

JW–We believe that seniors aren't going to be looking for us and that we need to be out in the community and helping them become aware of our programs. One of the things we do in Cuyahoga Health and Nutrition that's kind of new is we actually go out to the senior high-rises and we have workers assigned there who get to know the residents in the building and the building manager, sometimes there's even a social worker who is in the building and they make sure they're aware of the programs that are available to seniors. Also we've been working with the Golden Age Centers of Cleveland and just getting our information out through other organizations.

DCB–One of the things April noted in her story that there is no welfare-to-work for seniors. Do you think that what we're dealing with here, one of the problems we're dealing with, is a kind of psychological problem that the people have this built-in feeling of they're worthless or they can't be retrained, or they can't learn a new skill?

JW–I haven't experienced that, that's an interesting concept. We do talk to seniors about whether or not they'd be interested in working, and we've been working with AARP, which is an employment agency for seniors, and do find that some seniors are interested in going back to work.

DCB–Do you think the culture works against them in that sense?

JW–I think we all have in our minds that at a certain age we're going to retire and just no longer need to work, and so yes, I would agree, the culture would be playing on your mind if you needed to go back to work.

DCB–If you had your wish, your dream list, your way of mitigating this a little bit, what more would you like to see done?

JW–Well, I'd like people to have the opportunity to go back to work, if that's what they'd like to do, and to have a good retirement benefit to not have to go back to work if they don't want to and if they can't.

DCB–Jacqueline Ward is manager for the community-based programs for Cuyahoga Health and Nutrition. Thanks for joining us.

JW–OK, thanks.