Community Resources for Older Individuals in Callaway County, Missouri: A Review, Thesis of Business Accounting

Download Community Resources for Older Individuals in Callaway County, Missouri: A Review and more Thesis Business Accounting in PDF only on Docsity! Community Resources for Older Individuals Community Resources for Older Individuals Walden University Community Resources for Older Individuals As a person ages, many different issues can arise. Some of these issues include health concerns, poverty, housing issues, malnutrition, among other topics. Older adults can also have problems with health care and go to appointments due to transportation issues. Many different resources are available for older populations. Still, they are different for every area and can sometimes be difficult for older individuals to locate these resources without additional assistance. Volunteers and political officials often campaign to improve conditions and provide services to increase the well-being of those elderly individuals and families living in the local communities. This paper aims to evaluate and describe the resources a local organization provides for its older members. There are many different counties in Missouri, and most of the state is very rural, making transportation more difficult. I reside in Callaway county, which includes some small towns in Missouri. There are some resources in the county. The Senior and Disability Services assists older adults in locating resources in the community to help them live independently and help them determine if the individual needs to go somewhere with additional assistance (Senior and Disability Services). In Callaway county, a senior center provides meals and community and delivers meals to individuals who can’t leave their residence. Due to COVID-19, there has been more meal delivery than there was previously to assist older individuals in having meals. In Callaway County, older individuals also have access to additional housing for seniors and individuals with disabilities. These housing options are usually cheaper than housing in the Community Resources for Older Individuals community. Within Callaway county, older individuals also have access to SNAP (food stamps), Serve transport (transportation for a discounted rate), nutrition counseling, and home health aids if the person needs them. Every state has a government division that provides senior citizens with services that will support a healthy life. Although these services are made available through these divisions, often, there is a lack of adequate. In researching services provided to older adults in my community, I have come to find that many of the resources provided for older adults are effective in their favor. From my experience, these resources have been useful in helping older adults. There are some gaps in services in Callaway County. Some of these gaps include a lack of advertising resources as well as a lack of legal representation. Older adults would benefit from more legal presentations. Physical activity is also essential for older adults. There is one center that has classes for older adults, but the membership is expensive. Older individuals would benefit from a cheaper option to be able to have a healthy lifestyle. Legal aid for seniors would allow attorneys to answer questions, provide legal advice, advocacy, and review legal documents such as living wills or power of attorney documents. The community could improve the existing services by adding a budget for senior citizen centers that host activities that were explicitly appealing to this population. The organization could also solicit volunteer attorneys and paralegals to provide legal aid to the older adult population. The community would also benefit from having a person explain the older adults’ resources in the community. This could help the older adults reach all of the resources in the area to help them have the best quality of life that they can.