Elder Concerns

Elder Concerns – Gardner MA

The City of Gardner Massachusetts has accomplished successes in addressing elder concerns, including, but not limited to:

GardnerMagazine.com spoke with Gardner Massachusetts Mayor Michael Nicholson about what Gardner has accomplished in addressing elder concerns. This is what he had to say:

Mayor Nicholson: Its one of those things that we deal with on a consistent basis here because we want people to have access to what’s going on in their communities and to the amenities that are here in their backyard. One of the initiatives that were currently undertaking, working with Director Ellis at the Gardner Senior Center and the council on aging members, is making Gardner what’s called a dementia friendly community, an age friendly community, and an alzheimer’s friendly community. And what that means is we’ve gone through and we’re self auditing the city as to what needs to improve, what needs to be better. How can we make these places more accessible and livable for these people in these populations that are, you know, built Gardner. And that’s the thing is that we’re carrying on their legacy and the torch that they left us. We want to make sure they are still able to share in the community that they built. One of the reasons why one of our goals is to move the senior center from its current location at the old PACC on Pleasant Street to the former Waterford Street school building. Because it’s a single floor. We have a lot of people who can’t utilize the senior center right now because its a multi floor building, and people just have a hard time on stairs. And while there is an elevator there, some people don’t use elevators too because of their own mobility issues. So its one of those things that were doing what we can to make sure the greatest amount of the population is able to utilize our services. What is the method to make the community more memory friendly,

Mayor Nicholson also spoke about efforts to make the community memory friendly:

Mayor Nicholson: So there’s actually a program that we’re working with through the state’s office of Elders Affairs. There is different trainings for our first responders so that they know how to handle the patients who call, who are dealing with alzheimer’s and dementia. There’s different ways that community messaging can go out to help with those issues. There training for staff at the senior center, making sure people at the senior center and our different outreach organizations know what resources are there. That if someone is looking for help and they are a patient with either dementia or alzheimer’s, they know where to send those people to try to find that information that’s out there. This is something that’s very near and dear to my heart. I lost my grandfather to alzheimer’s disease, and I’m named after him. And it’s one of the reasons why I sit on the board of the Worcester County Alzheimers Association. Is because there’s a lot we need to do to make it so that these peoples family members are here. But its not just those patients too, but their caretakers. Dealing with someone who’s in that situation is very mentally taxing, very energy draining. But its something you do because they’re your loved ones, your family, your friends, your relatives, your neighbors. And so its not only getting the resources for those who are in those situations, but their caretakers as well….If we can be proactive rather than reactive, then we’ve done our job.