Richard F. LaMountain

Are you a senior citizen who needs help with health care, home heating or transportation — or even with routine daily tasks like bathing, dressing and preparing meals?

Are you a caregiver who spends significant time assisting seniors or other loved ones with these basic needs?

Or are you seeking volunteer work that can enhance the lives of neighbors in need — and your own as well?

Whichever you might be, during the county fair, be sure to stop by the Grant County Senior Programs table inside Trowbridge Pavilion. There, you can speak with local advocates and pick up literature about senior-assistance programs and the many volunteer opportunities they provide.

The table is sponsored by the Grant County Senior Citizens Advisory Council, a five-member volunteer body tasked to serve “as an advocate within government and the community at large for the interests of elderly persons.” The council advises the county’s Senior Programs Office, whose mission is “to establish linkages within the community in order for seniors and disabled persons to meet their daily survival needs and remain in their homes in a safe and healthy environment as long as possible.”

The Senior Programs Office oversees the employees and nutrition programs of the county’s three senior centers and operates as a clearinghouse for a wide range of public and private programs. Among them:

• Oregon Project Independence. This state program offers in-home caregiver help to non-Medicaid-eligible Oregonians 60 and older who need assistance walking, eating, using the bathroom or performing other basic activities of daily life.

• Living Well Self-Management workshops. These teach seniors living with chronic pain, diabetes and other diseases how to improve their diets, combat fatigue and depression, evaluate new treatments and manage their conditions.

• As well, the Senior Programs Office works with other agencies to provide seniors in need with nutritional guidance and healthy foods; housing assistance; medical equipment, Medicare counseling and transportation to doctor’s appointments; advice on care facilities; legal representation and help preparing taxes; assistance with water and sewer bills — and even, via Oregon Senior Peer Outreach, reassuring telephone calls.

• The Senior Programs Office’s most visible community presence resides in the senior centers it helps fund, maintain and operate in John Day, Monument and Prairie City. The centers’ primary charge: to provide nutritious meals to older adults.

The John Day Senior Center (142 N.E. Dayton St.) offers communal lunches at noon on Mondays and Thursdays; the Monument Senior Center (269 Main St.) at noon on Tuesdays; and the Prairie City Senior Center (204 N. McHaley St.) at noon on Wednesdays. For seniors who are homebound or otherwise unable to attend the communal gatherings, meals can be home-delivered by volunteers. For each lunch, the suggested donation is $6 for those 60 and over and $7 for those under 60.

The meals are prepared by experienced chefs and served by friendly volunteers. And they’re accompanied by sustenance of another kind: the conversation, camaraderie and fellowship with friends new and old that can so vitally enhance seniors’ physical and emotional well-being.

For senior-citizen caregivers, the Senior Programs Office provides:

• The Family Caregiver Support Program, which offers training and occasional respite to unpaid caregivers and helps adapt homes to the needs of seniors and the disabled.

• Powerful Tools for Caregivers workshops, which help caregivers negotiate the stresses and challenges inherent in caring for the aged and disabled.

And if you’re seeking a rewarding volunteer opportunity, senior programs offer many that can accommodate your schedule and utilize your skills. A few:

• At the senior centers, you can donate food, serve or deliver meals, set and decorate tables, wash dishes, or seek appointment to your center’s board of directors.

• For Oregon’s Long-Term Care Ombudsman program, you can become a certified ombudsman volunteer, in which position you’ll meet and advocate for residents of care facilities and recommend actions to improve their quality of life.

• And for Oregon’s Senior Health Insurance Benefits Assistance program, you can train to work as a volunteer counselor, helping seniors understand their Medicare rights and options.

So whether you’re a senior citizen, a caregiver or a potential volunteer, the Grant County Senior Programs Office has something for you. Come by our table this week to speak with us or to pick up printed information about our many projects and programs.

And enjoy the fair!