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Sedgwick County Commission Approves 2018 Funding For Senior Care Act

Susan NYC
/
flickr, Creative Commons

Sedgwick County commissioners approved additional funding for a program that provides in-home services for older people who have limited physical abilities.

The Senior Care Act program will add two full-time positions in 2018. The program serves people 60 years old and older in Sedgwick, Butler and Harvey counties.

The program provides in-home help with personal care, meals, appointments, and light housework.

Annette Graham with the Sedgwick County Division on Aging says 170 seniors are receiving services, and another 200 are on a waiting list.

"The program is targeted to individuals that are not eligible for Medicaid—they are pre-Medicaid eligibility—and it really is to help them extend their resources to remain in their homes and communities as long as possible," Graham says.

Seniors who meet functional limitation criteria for a nursing home level of care are eligible for the in-home services.

The commissioners voted unanimously on Wednesday to approve the annual agreement between the Kansas Department on Aging and Disability Services and the Central Plains Area Agency on Aging, which runs the Senior Care Act program.

The program costs about $1.3 million, with the bulk of the funding coming from the state.

Graham says state lawmakers cut the budget by 35% last year so the program had to reduce services and cut the number of seniors it served. Three staff members also lost their jobs. That funding has been restored for 2018.

The Senior Care Act began in the 1980’s with the goal to help older people who have limitations remain in their own homes as long as possible.

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Follow Deborah Shaar on Twitter @deborahshaar

 
To contact KMUW News or to send in a news tip, reach us at news@kmuw.org.

 

Deborah joined the news team at KMUW in September 2014 as a news reporter. She spent more than a dozen years working in news at both public and commercial radio and television stations in Ohio, West Virginia and Detroit, Michigan. Before relocating to Wichita in 2013, Deborah taught news and broadcasting classes at Tarrant County College in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas area.