Elderly don’t have to be isolated

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Published: November 13, 1997

BRANDON, Man. – Being independent doesn’t mean being by yourself.

Glenora Slimmen wants to get that message out to her fellow senior citizens because she believes getting involved in the community and sharing time with others helps people live longer.

“The way the demographics works, there’s more older single women out there than anything else,” said the 72-year-old Brandon widow.

“Managing by themselves is fine, but it shouldn’t mean being alone. It means being in charge and being able to find services you need and taking responsibility for your life and not just sitting back and saying ‘Oh dear, what do I do now.’ “

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Elderly people have to make the effort to get involved as soon as they hit their senior years or it can be too late, she said.

“Your health gets a little frailer and you lose your connections.”

Brandon’s Seniors for Seniors Co-op Inc. has been hosting a forum featuring seniors’ services for seven years. The event continues to grow, mainly because Brandon is rich with services that many of the elderly population don’t know about, Slimmen said.

“You don’t want to know about these things until you need them and when you do, you’re almost past the stage of being able to find out what’s out there.”

In an age of government cuts, seniors today have no choice but to become more independent, she said. There isn’t enough money for governments to support seniors, and that leaves the job up to the private sector.

“We’re going to have to make use of what’s out there and be very careful not to have duplication of services.”

Slimmen believes the business sector will be able to rise to the challenge, but added seniors shouldn’t have to suffer shortfalls during the transition.

Government budget restraint has left large gaps in support services needed by the growing seniors population, such as supportive housing and checking up on the elderly after a hospital stay, she said. A volunteer with Seniors for Seniors is paired up with elderly patients about to be discharged from local hospitals. For people not eligible for home care and who don’t have families close by, that’s when they need help the most, Slimmen said.

Supportive housing, something between a person’s own home and a personal care home, is a much larger task, but the results could add years to an elderly person’s life, Slimmen said.

“In their wisdom when they’re trying to budget, governments have to look ahead with a long-term vision and recognize the fact that there’s a new generation here that needs this,” she said.

“It would save money because they wouldn’t have umpteen dozen people taking up hospital space waiting for personal care beds.”

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