I write to you on behalf of older adults and/or their family members who come to the Oxford Senior Center (OSCI) to gain access to senior services. Not only does OSCI currently provide care management, but, Outreach, congregate meals, senior transportation, adult day care and home delivered meals. Older adults who come to the Center are very comfortable with the ESP care manager employed by the Center and appreciate being able to drop in to see her if they have any questions or concerns. I regret deeply that LifeSpan did not explore the possibility of continuing this structure by subcontracting with OSCI.

We are the senior center for this geographical area as are Middletown Senior Citizens and Partners in Prime for their geographical areas. Older adults and their family members come to the senior centers to access services and enjoy leisure time. The three senior centers in Butler County have been the sites for the care managers since the inception of the ESP in 1996. Through its current proposal, LifeSpan has effectively eliminated the senior centers from being a point of entry. I am asking you to step in and intervene to assure that Butler County’s older adults continue to have access to ESP care managers in a familiar and all encompassing location.

By being located in a senior center, care managers are able to build relationships and trust with current recipients of the ESP services and future recipients. Current recipients and future recipients do not have to experience frustration when they come to the senior centers for information and services they think should be available through this point of entry into the aging network.

Helen Smith, president of the Butler County Committee for the Elderly Services Program (BCCESP), stated on August 21, at the BCCESP board meeting that current ESP participants do not come to the senior centers. This is not true. Diana Cox, Oxford Senior Center’s ESP current care manager reviewed her current caseload and found that 51 of the 114 clients were members of the Oxford Senior Center. I am sure that the other Centers have the same experience. It makes sense to have care managers in a place where older adults congregate. Please consider this proposal in earnest.

From figures presented by the Council on Aging (COA), OSCI is the current provider of care management with the lowest indirect cost and a bit lower in cost per client than LifeSpan. OSCI has been a good steward of the ESP dollars and I feel that we are a casualty of the bid process. OSCI has been doubly insulted by not being identified as a point of entry for services for older adults by LifeSpan or the COA. Please intervene and help assure that the older adults of Oxford, Middletown and Hamilton will continue to have the same relationships with the senior centers and the ESP care managers located within them.

Sincerely,