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Expanded Passport program assists seniors, providing independence, dignity
Governor Strickland's expansion eliminated waiting list for popular program, added new slots.
Sunday, August 05, 2007
FRANKLIN — — Bessie Anderson, 96, has too much going on to stay in a nursing home.
She plays gospel hymns on an organ at Mount Pleasant Conover Adult Day Center and has made friends there who she calls family.
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But most importantly, the legally blind Franklin resident who needs help getting around has nurse's aides who visit her daily to care for her.
"I'd rather live at home with dignity than go to a nursing home and be just a number,'' Anderson said.
Anderson, who suffers from a number of health problems, is one of more than 26,000 Ohio senior citizens enrolled in the state's Passport program.
Passport provides home-delivered meals, house keeping, personal care, home medical equipment and transportation to doctor's appointments and day centers to seniors 60 and older who are Medicaid eligible.
Earlier this year, about 1,100 people were on a waiting list for the program. But Gov. Ted Strickland eliminated the wait and expanded Passport by 5,000 slots.
"We are so happy that the budget allowed more people access to this program. Now more people will be able to get services through Passport than in the past,'' said Kathy Keller, a spokeswoman for AARP Ohio. Keller said the state is not only allowing seniors to remain independent and live in their own homes, officials are also saving taxpayers money.
On average, the state spends about $12,000 a year for each person in the Passport program, compared to about $56,000 a year for nursing home care, she said.
Nursing home advocates also support the program.
Steve Mould, director of public affairs for the Ohio Health Care Association in Columbus, said nursing home operators are in favor of programs that allow senior citizens to remain independent as long as possible.
Mould said there's a growing need for 24-hour nursing home care and alternative care such as in-home care and adult daycare centers.
"Nursing facilities don't want people there who don't want to be there and who don't need to be there,'' Mould said. "They're not happy and it makes things tougher all the way around.''
Laurie Petrie, a spokeswoman for the Council of Aging of Southwestern Ohio, said seniors citizens in this part of the state will be the biggest beneficiaries of the expanded program. She said the bulk of the additional slots were added in this region, which now provides Passport services to about 3,000 residents a year.
Among them is Betty Bair, 71, of Middletown, who visits the Conover Day Center in Franklin once a week. Passport is a godsend, she said.
Bair said that, after she was diagnosed with congestive heart failure and received two artificial heart valves, she became depressed and feared losing her independence.
She said Passport sends meals and an aide to her home three times a week. The aide cleans her home, picks up her prescriptions and gets groceries for her.
"It lets you live with dignity,'' Bair said. "This way you can control your own life more or less. I don't know who wouldn't want to be at home and not in a nursing home.''
