Programs for Seniors Being Scaled Back, Canceled In Some Areas

The Senior Center Plus program is the highlight of the week for Mary Watson, who suffers from Alzheimer’s-type dementia. But within a week, she will have to find another place for activities, because the program is being discontinued at the South County and Pasadena Senior Centers.

The program provides social activities for seniors in the comunity who each pay a small fee. But the program is being discontinued at the two centers due to budget constraints within the county.

Participants were sent notices this week and are being urged to travel to other centers of activity, such as Annapolis or Arnold, where the programs will still be operated.

Mary Felter, spokesperson for Anne Arundel County, said all county departments have had to take a serious look at their budgets this year and make necessary cuts in order to balance the books. Programs like senior center plus are just one of those in the county being scaled back, she said.

“We’re all talking about how we can do more with less,” Felter said. “We’ll all be taking on some more responsibilities.”

As the full-time caretaker for her mother-in-law Mary Watson, Carla Duls said the four-hour program, twice each week, at the South County Senior Center is the highlight of Watson’s week. Every Monday and Wednesday, she joins her friends at the senior center, and together they make crafts, do chair exercises and listen to music together.

“She lives in the moment. When I get her home, she has no idea that she’s been here,” Duls said. “But for those four hours when she’s there, her social aspect comes out. She’s with her friends, she’s playing air piano to the music. I don’t get to see that person at home.”

Duls said the program also gives her an opportunity to run errands around town or relax at home while her mother-in-law socializes with people her own age.

“It might sound selfish, but anyone who’s been a caregiver knows that you need that time to decompress. To just be alone in my house is precious to me, if only for an hour or so,” she said. “But as important as that is, I really am more concerned for her.”

Now she’s being told that by the end of the month, that option won’t exist. As an alternative, Duls was told that she could bring her mother-in-law to the Annapolis senior center, or elsewhere. But that’s not a solution, she said.

“She was on a waiting list for a few months before the slot opened up at the senior center,” Duls said. “I have to imagine there’s a similar waiting list in Annapolis.”

Everyone who participates in the plus programming pays a $35 per day fee to the senior center. However, South County Senior Center representative Pam Potter said that fee wasn’t self-sustaining for the program, and the county has subsidized it for years.  

Linda Aspeslagh said she’s upset that the county gave no prior notice of the program being discontinued to those who have been participants for years. Official notices for the discontinuations were just sent out this week, Potter said. The official stop-date is June 29.

Aspeslagh said now she’s scrambling to find a replacement activity for her mother. And Duls is in the same boat. She’s written to County Executive John Leopold in the hopes that he will stand up to help preserve the program, but she has yet to receive a reply.

“To take that away with no notice, no discussion, just, ‘Hey, it’s gone, hope you can find something else to do.’ I just find that extremely unprofessional,” Aspeslagh said.

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The Department of Aging/County Executive responds (June 29): County Executive Leopold fully funded the Senior Center Plus program, which provides enhanced activities for frail senior citizens. The article fails to mention that the County Council cut the program by 50 percent based on recommendations from the County Auditor. The Department of Aging and Disabilities has taken steps to assist affected citizens by transporting them to other senior centers.