THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, December 22, 1994 TAG: 9412220526
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DEBRA GORDON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines
Dressed in a bright green sweater, her shrunken body hunched in the chair, 94-year-old Caroline Emory shakily places a disc over the word ``Noel'' on her bingo card.
Bingo is the afternoon activity here at the Norfolk Senior Center's adult day care program, which Emory attends four days a week.
Without the program, Emory, who is nearly deaf and blind, would probably be in a nursing home, says her daughter, Allean Kerr of Portsmouth.
Emory pays $1 a day toward the $32.12-a-day cost for the care. The rest comes from the Southeastern Virginia Areawide Model Program, or SEVAMP, which helps support the program.
SEVAMP also provides a hot meal every day and transportation to and from the center for many participants.
``Without SEVAMP, we wouldn't be open,'' says the center's supervisor, Candace Skinner.
But under Gov. George F. Allen's proposed budget cuts, SEVAMP would lose about $47,000 in state funding - money that directly supports programs like adult day care, home-delivered meals, home care and transportation for the elderly.
``This is going to hurt seniors in Hampton Roads,'' SEVAMP Executive Director John N. Skirven said about Allen's proposed cuts in the Department for the Aging. ``Cutting that money means that 10,372 home-delivered meals could not be served; or that 5,300 hours of home care could not be provided.''
The result, Skirven said, is that more elderly Virginians will end up in nursinghomes, which costs the state considerably more than providing community-based services.
Allen's proposal calls for a $347,000 reduction in respite care, for home-delivered meals, transportation and in-home services that agencies on aging provide to the elderly. Allen calls these services ``nonessential.''
Skirven disagrees.
``These services are essential, and I welcome anyone to try and tell me that they're not,'' Skirven said angrily. ``We've got documentation, all the assessment, the clinical work we do, which ensures that only those people who need these services get these services.''
People like Emory.
``She's worked hard all her life,'' says her daughter. ``She supported two daughters by herself when my father died, now it's our turn to take care of her.''
Emory lives with Kerr, who works two jobs. Until a year ago, Kerr left her mother alone in the house when she worked.
But that didn't work, Kerr said. ``She really does not do too well for periods of time by herself.''
The day-care program enables her mother to interact with other people and ensures that she eats snacks and a hot meal every day.
Since she's been in the program, says Skinner, Emory has ``blossomed'' and become more alert mentally.
``People on the whole want to keep their parents at home. It's that sometimes, if they don't have options like this day care, you're left holding the bag. Few people can afford to stay home all the time.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
JOSEPH JOHN KOTLOWSKI/Staff
Caroline Emory, 94, leaves the Norfolk Senior Center's adult
day-care program Wednesday. The proposed budget cuts would reduce
state funds that help pay for the program.
by CNB