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Volunteers needed for In-Home Senior Respite in DuPage County

Posted October 17, 2009 11:00 pm

Think of what you could do with three hours.

Get in a workout. Catch up with a friend. Have dinner with your honey.

Help a family manage as they care for Grandma or Grandpa at home rather than in long-term care.

Volunteers with the In-Home Senior Respite program give caregivers a break from the constant responsibility of caring for an older adult at home.

In a training session today, volunteers will learn about issues related to aging and care-giving, get ideas for connecting with seniors and learn how to handle emergencies. Volunteers also are screened with a criminal-background check before they're matched with a family needing respite services.

For the volunteers, the commitment is relatively small. Just three hours a week.

But for the caregivers, those three hours can mean the difference between being able to manage in-home care and needing to move a loved one into a nursing home, said program coordinator Jody Kanikula.

Kanikula tells us more about In-Home Senior Respite, a program run by Wheaton-based Metropolitan Family Services DuPage.

Q. What is your mission?

A. To provide and mobilize the services needed to strengthen families and communities.

Q. How do you work toward accomplishing that goal?

A. The In-Home Senior Respite program provides screened and trained volunteers to visit with frail seniors for three hours in their homes while the family caregiver takes a much-needed break. The senior benefits from the companionship and the caregiver from the break; this helps seniors stay at home as long as possible.

Volunteers also benefit. Recent research tells us that volunteering can help protect our mental and physical health by providing a boost to self-confidence, self-esteem and life satisfaction. In doing good for others and the community, volunteers feel a natural sense of accomplishment and purpose, feel more connected and less stressed. Seniors who volunteer live longer than those who don't volunteer. (The health benefits of volunteering: a review of recent research-www.nationalservice.gov)

Q. Who do you serve?

A. The In-Home Senior Respite program serves frail adults 60 and older and the families who care for them in DuPage County.

Q. When and why did the organization start? How has it grown?

A. Metropolitan Family Services DuPage has been serving families across the life span for more than 75 years.

In 2002, a local physician noticed that family caregivers of frail seniors in DuPage County desperately needed a break. He brought the idea to Central DuPage Health Care, which invited Metropolitan Family Services DuPage and many other community agencies to develop a plan to meet the needs of caregiving families and In-Home Senior Respite was born.

In the past seven years, the program has grown 243 percent. Volunteers gave just more than 1,300 hours of service in 2002; in 2008, volunteers gave 3,184 hours, a 238 percent increase.

Q. What kind of successes have you had?

A. The kind of success this program has is always very personal. Many families in the program have made a promise to a husband or wife, a mother or father, that they will never be placed in a nursing home. Three hours a week doesn't sound like a lot, but it can make the difference between a senior living at home and living in a nursing home.

One daughter tells of moving her mother into her home after the death of her father to keep her promise to him to "take care of Mom." They use the time for a "date night," a way to reconnect.

Combating loneliness also is an important success of the program. A bond develops between the senior and the volunteer that often moves into friendship.

Q. What challenges does the program currently face?

A. Perhaps one of the biggest challenges In-Home Senior Respite faces is the growth of the 60-and-older population. By 2030, DuPage County's senior population is projected to grow by 134 percent, or 160,000 people. That means many more families will need our services. We are always recruiting new volunteers; this will become even more crucial as the need grows.

Because we are a not-for-profit, funding is an issue as well. Especially in a recession and with the State of Illinois budget troubles, we do struggle to fund our program.

Q. What do you wish the community at large knew about the organization?

A. Metropolitan Family Services DuPage provided help to 8,442 people in DuPage County in fiscal year 2009; of those, 471 were served by In-Home Senior Respite. But I think the numbers tell only a small part of the story. Each number represents a person who touches so many others, and so on and so on.

Every time one person is strengthened, it strengthens the community as a whole. Not only are the families stronger, but so are the volunteers. And who knows when any of us will need help ourselves.

I think that is what the community should know about Metropolitan Family Services; help is here if you need it and you'll be surprised to know the help comes from friends and neighbors in your community.

Q. How can readers get involved?

A. Volunteer! We always need volunteers. We especially need volunteers during the day in the northern part of the county.

A growing need is for male, veteran volunteers. We have several World War II veterans who have requested younger, male veterans as volunteers.

We also have opportunities to volunteer as a team, with a grandchild or child 12 to 17, or as team for families who have an extreme need for respite.

We always accept donations to help fund our program.

- Christie Willhite

If you go What: In-Home Senior Respite Volunteer Training Why: Volunteers provide three-hour breaks for families caring for frail older relatives When: 1 to 4 p.m. today Where: Metropolitan Family Services DuPage, 222 E. Willow, Wheaton Details: Volunteers will learn about caregiver needs, aging issues, respite policies, activities and emergency procedures, and must consent to a criminal-background check Info: (630) 784-4875 Requests for help per year: 95 families, 471 individuals, received services in fiscal year 2009 Annual budget: $149,619 for In-Home Senior Respite program Funding: United Way, City of Naperville Social Services fund, DuPage County Community Development Block Grant and agency fundraising Employees: Equivalent of 1.25 full time Volunteers: 76 Wish list: Forever stamps; gift cards from Target, Wal-Mart, Jewel or Dominick's To donate: 222 E. Willow Ave., Wheaton, IL 60187 To volunteer: (630) 784-4875 or kanikuj@metrofamily.org Info: (630) 784-4875 or <a href="http://metrofamily.org" target="new">metrofamily.org</a>

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