Gas Price's Unlikely Victims

[question everything]

The Wall Street Journal

Gas Price's Unlikely Victims
High Cost Crimps Travel Tied to Volunteer
Programs, Support Services for Shut-Ins
By CLARE ANSBERRY
June 5, 2008; Page A14

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For the disabled who are allotted limited transportation funds, the impact is felt differently. With the high price of gas, frequent trips to doctors eat up their allocations. Nonessential travel, which might be 10-mile trips to bulk-food markets where they can stretch their limited budgets, is curtailed... Essentially homebound, many disabled people rely on others to drive them to a doctor's office or bring them food. They might be frail, partially paralyzed or have multiple sclerosis. Some were recently released from a hospital or are in the last stages of cancer. Although they can be of any age, older adults are more affected because they often live alone and may not have anyone else to drive them. Such support services, which help millions of physically and financially needy people remain at home, are widely considered the wise and more desirable alternative to costly institutions, such as nursing homes or hospitals. They remain so, but the unforeseen explosive and sustained rise in the cost of delivering those services, coupled with insufficient federal, state and local funding and growing demand, threatens their ability to continue.

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Residents in rural areas are often hit hardest. Doctors, dentists and grocery stores may be miles away and there is often little, if any, public transportation. Agencies such as Easter Seals provide rides for those with disabilities, but with high gasoline costs, such services are often limited largely to medical appointments. "Necessities are being met but there is limited recreational and social activity," says Pandora Shaw-Dupras, director of adult and community services for Easter Seals' central and southeast Ohio region. Many of these support services have kept their costs low by relying on volunteers who once shouldered costs they can no longer bear.

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Dozens of homebound people in rural Minnesota were to receive letters telling them their local Meals on Wheels program is closing on June 30. Some are on ventilators; others are quadriplegics. Those with dementia or Alzheimer's disease sometimes forget to eat unless someone brings them their food. A private service has agreed to take over service to those who can afford to pay for home-delivered meals... Other agencies are putting people on waiting lists, ranking them according to need. Those at risk of malnutrition or hospitalization are at the top, and those who have family nearby rank lower.

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In Rock Hill, S.C., Herb Gewirtzman, a 76-year-old who is paralyzed on his right side, is one of 300 people on the waiting list for home-delivered meals. In Camden County, N.J., the Hunters, Shirley, 69, and Emory, 75, are on a waiting list with 200 others. Mrs. Hunter's tremors leave her unable to measure ingredients or hold pots and her husband has rheumatoid arthritis. She can prepare Malt-O-Meal cereal in the morning and canned soup or a frozen dinner in the evening. "I know we're not eating right," she says.

Other meal-delivery programs are cutting the number of deliveries to once a week, rather than five, and using frozen meals. That has allowed some struggling programs to survive, but has eliminated the daily contact some say is almost as important as nutrition. Indeed, although a good meal is critical in keeping people healthy, the value of the meals extends beyond nutrition. Those who are homebound may not regularly see anyone but the person who drops off the meal. One woman in northern Kentucky fell in her bathroom at 11 p.m. and was there until 1 p.m. the next afternoon, when Jerry Riches delivered her meal. Another time, a blind woman told the Senior Services of Northern Kentucky driver that it seemed cold in her house. He looked at the thermostat; she had turned it the wrong way.

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URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121263496261947543.html (subscription)

[Tangerine LaBamba]

1. This is America

Give me your tired, your poor ........

This is America, and we're supposed to take care of each other.

What is going to happen to us?