Senior Citizens Services Top Advisory Board's Agenda

The heard from representatives from Downtown Silver Spring Senior Village, Easter Seals, Takoma Park Seniors and the Montgomery County Health and Human Services Department Monday to learn how they provide transportation, living, social and medical services to senior citizens in the community.

Downtown Silver Spring Senior Village

This is a new venture, a nonprofit organization that serves as an elderly cooperative, social club and concierge service, Roberta Gosier, its co-chair, said.

Recognized as a supported fund of the Community Foundation of the National Capital Region, DSSSV began in September 2010 and meets monthly at Springvale Terrace retirement home on Springvale Road. Once it is fully operational, it will offer services such as transportation, grocery shopping, home repairs and social activities for senior citizens so they can stay in their homes longer. The goal is to provide these things by 2013.

The organization works with the Washington Area Villages Exchange and the Jewish Council for the Aging. Volunteers and donations are needed to jumpstart the Village, Martine Brizius, co-chair of DSSSV, said. Those interested may visit email info@dsssvillage.org.

Easter Seals

The Silver Spring facility, on the corner of Spring Street and Second Avenue in downtown, includes a daycare for children with or without learning disabilities and a medical adult daycare for those who may be living with dementia or have other disabilities. Through Easter Seals, senior citizens can become and remain independent as they age. “We’re trying to promote independence, prolong it, give you another choice. After all, doesn’t everybody really just want to live at home?” Anne Ambrose, adult day services regional director of marketing, said.

Senior citizens are brought to the facility by wheelchair-accessible vans and are given breakfast, lunch and a snack. Some services include physical, occupational and speech therapy, and arts and crafts. Senior citizens also may interact and socialize with the children. The facility houses 80 adults per day with more spaces available, while the child daycare has a long waiting list. 

Takoma Park Seniors

Wolfgang Mergner of Takoma Park Seniors presented an initiative called “Seniors and Those Who Care for Them,” informal breakfast and evening meetings that will discuss the needs of Takoma Park senior citizens. The initiative held its first opening meeting in October 2011 and hopes to form a village organization in Takoma Park to help seniors age at home. Next month, topics such as aging at home, daycare and home care are on the agenda. Mergner may be contacted at wolfgang.mergner@gmail.com.

Montgomery County Health and Human Services Department

Odile Saddi, director of Area Agency on Aging and staff liaison of Commission on Aging, discussed a variety of programs and services for seniors and those with disabilities provided through the Montgomery County Health and Human Services Department. Services include a senior lunch program, home renovation for easy accessibility and movability, and access to insurance providers.

Votes

In addition to discussions on senior citizens services, the board voted unanimously to submit three letters to the Montgomery County Council supporting these initiatives:

1. The East Silver Spring Citizen’s Association proposes turning the police station on Sligo Avenue into an arts center and community garden site for residents of the Central Business District in Fenton Village. “We have no art space for artists in the art district, and we have no green space in Fenton Village,” said Karen Roper, who chairs a zoning and land use committee of ESSCA, said. 

The full board meets every second Monday at 7 p.m. at the in downtown Silver Spring.