by Lorine Parks
“One year equals one day,” said Darren Dunaway, Associate Director of Human Services Association in Bell Gardens, at 6800 Florence Avenue.
“One year of services to one senior costs the same as just one day in the hospital,” Darren explained. And those services can include one hot meal daily, delivered by Meals on Wheels; recreational programs at the Senior Center; and Alzheimer Day Care at the Human Services headquarters.
It is the aim of Human Services to keep seniors living in their own home as long as possible. Not only is it is much more cost efficient to the tax payer, it is much more satisfactory to seniors, who feel safe and secure and do not have to be displaced in their old age.
Human Services Association is a community-based agency providing a wide range of social services to residents of southeast Los Angeles County. Today Darren concentrated on its senior programs, but HSA also offers Family & Community Services such as Family Preservation; Parent Resource Centers; Pasitos (a First 5 LA early learning program); Parenting Classes; Domestic Violence Assistance; Child Abuse Prevention & Intervention; and Emergency Assistance.
“We are the largest private provider of meals in Los Angeles County,” Daren said. “We serve 8,000 hot meals a day, from the kitchens in Long Beach, where preparation starts at 4 am and volunteer deliverers start out as early as 7 am. Often this is the only meal a senior has all day, so this is not only nutrition, but a human contact served by someone with a ready smile.”
An important alternate to Meals on Wheels is “congregate meals,” which are served at a HSA center for active senior citizens. “We want you to get out and be happy,” says Darren. There are 28 meal sites in Southern California. In Downey, the Barbara Riley Senior Service Center serves meals with live piano music. At all these centers there are free social and health care programs, all absolutely free to citizens over 60 who are eligible for Medicare.
Entrees on October Tuesdays, the same day as our Rotary luncheon meeting, include soup or juice; Fish Almandine, Beef Stew and Smothered Pork chops; vegetables; salad of red cabbage or creamy dill cucumbers; rolls or biscuit; and dessert of fruit or carrot cake. Suggested donation for lunch is $2.25 but the average actually given is $.50.
Any donation, no matter how large or small, is always greatly appreciated and accepted. No individual will be turned away due to inability to donate.
If you can’t pay, we’ll never turn you away,” says Darren. How is Human Services funded, that it can afford to offer all this? Answer is that it holds contracts with LA County, the State of California, outside agencies, and receives grants from private foundations and private citizens.
If you can’t pay, we’ll never turn you away,” says Darren. How is Human Services funded, that it can afford to offer all this? Answer is that it holds contracts with LA County, the State of California, outside agencies, and receives grants from private foundations and private citizens.
The Older Americans Act (OAA) is key: originally enacted by Congress in 1965, it supports a range of home and community-based services, such as meals-on-wheels and other nutrition programs, in-home services, transportation, legal services, elder abuse prevention and caregivers support. The Older American Act was signed into law by the President Lyndon Johnson on July 14, 1965, to ensure “the best possible physical and mental health services for senior citizens without regard to economic status.”
Human Services Association serves 28 cities and 7 unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County: Artesia; Bell; Bell Gardens; Bellflower; Cerritos; Commerce; Cudahy; Downey; Hawaiian Gardens; Hollydale; Huntington Park; Lakewood; Lynwood; Maywood, Norwalk, Paramount, Pico Rivera, Santa Fe Springs, South Gate, and Whittier, among other cities.
Home-based care is a service, which includes visits to check that medications are being taken, and light housekeeping. For seniors sixty 60+, a home assessment is available, for care management to help seniors live independently. Home Based Care & Registry is a referral program which matches workers with senior citizens 60 and over who need assistance in the home. Registry workers provide housekeeping, meal preparation, personal care, transportation, and companionship.
Would you qualify for help? Emphasis is on those with the greatest economic and social need, who are “frail,” which is defined as unable to perform at least two activities of daily living such as: walking, transferring, dressing, bathing, toileting, eating, or have a cognitive impairment or other mental impairment and requires substantial supervision, homebound by reason of illness, disability, or otherwise isolated, and have a need for care management, and be willing to participate in the program.
The fastest growing care area, Darren told us, concerns Alzheimer’s Disease. “By 2050, the senior population will double, and the percentage of seniors with AD will increase by much more than that. 325,000 of the baby boomers in Los Angeles County who are nearing 65 today, will have Alzheimer’s by age 85.
“We want to keep people out of nursing homes and hospitals,” said Darren. It saves dollars.” Senior center out-patient programs also include programs that provide respite for those involved in care-giver support for senior citizen with AD.
How does this work? The remarkable HAS Alzheimer’s Day Care Resource Center (ADCRC) is located at the main office in Bell Gardens, and allows memory-impaired and/or socially isolated senior citizens to spend their day in a caring, supportive environment. ADCRC’s goals are to delay or prevent nursing home placement, to provide a program meeting each client’s needs, and to assist clients in achieving better management of incapacitating symptoms of dementia.
Daily ADCRC activities include lunch and snacks, arts and crafts, and group therapy. English and Spanish support groups are also available for family members of ADCRC participants.
Citizens who live in Downey are incredibly fortunate, to be so near to the program headquarters in Bell Gardens, just one mile northwest from the Rio Hondo Event Center where we meet. HSA was founded in Bell Gardens in 1940 as an outreach effort of the Presbyterian Church USA, when floods in the area highlighted the pre-existing and growing problems of poverty in Bell Gardens and surrounding southeast Los Angeles County communities.
Today, HSA serves over 20,000 clients annually on a non-sectarian basis with a range of services that addresses the unique and shared needs of clients of all ages.
This is the only job Darren has ever had. He has been employed at HAS since September, 1994, 22+ years. In addition, Darren was our Club president in 2006-7. "I've been very lucky with my career," says Darren, who was born and raised in Arcadia. He obtained a bachelor's in nutrition from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in 1994, went to work as nutrition director for Bell Gardens-based Human Resources Association, the same year he married his childhood sweetheart Cindy. Darren likes to coach baseball: he and Cindy have two sons, Jack and Drew, and a daughter, Ella.
Rotary's motto, 'Service Above Self', is similar to HSA's 'Where Caring Becomes Doing.' As Darren says “It's a nice tie-in. They have like-minded ideals. When I was president of Rotary I emphasized cohesiveness and getting to know one another better."
In February of this year, the Rotary Club of Downey hosted a Spaghetti Dinner Fundraiser in support of the HSA Alzheimer’s Day Care. Each ticket to event cost $10 and 100% of the proceeds went to HSA. Morrison Healthcare donated all of the food, and Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church School supplied the location. The event raised $2600, which President Russell Skersick presented to Darren as a check.
Today Darren holds the Number 2 position at the 77-year-old social services institution, the only firm (a nonprofit) he has ever worked for. This area is lucky, Darren, to have you.