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Senior call program provides vital lifeline
(by Sue Reid - April 18, 2012)
Senior call program provides vital lifeline
By SUE REID
The value of the Solon Senior Center's daily call program became resoundingly clear last week when volunteer Edith Ullemeyer placed her first call of the day.
Like she has done for the past year, Ms. Ullemeyer called fellow senior citizen Shirley Yost for her regular morning checkup. This time, no one answered.
After the first call, she said, she thought Ms. Yost, 77, may have just stepped away from the phone. After the second and third attempts, though Ms. Ullemeyer thought there could be an issue.
She immediately called Beth Kamer, social worker at the senior center, who then called Ms. Yost's emergency contact, her sister. "Once we determined she was not out and forgot to tell anyone, I called dispatch," Ms. Kamer said.
Ms. Yost, who has Parkinson's disease, had fallen at about 2 a.m. She said last week that she got up to go to the bathroom, and all she remembered was waking up in a pool of blood.
She had been on the bathroom floor for about seven hours. She said she could not get up, as her arm was tucked underneath her.
What she did know at the time, she said, was that her morning call was sure to come. She heard the phone ring and the answering machine pick up, she said.
"As soon as I herd the sirens coming into the development, I thought, 'Thank God they are coming for me.'" Ms. Yost said. She managed to yell, "I'm here," when she heard the ladder being placed against her house.
One of the responding officers, Patrolman Brad Lender, said the program is extremely valuable as it sets up a call chain, which, in this case, was lifesaving.
"If you have a call every day like this, you know there will be someone trying to get a hold of you to make sure you're OK," Mr. Lender said.
Ms. Yost fractured a vertebra and her neck and has stitches in her elbow and a black eye as a result of the fall. She had taken her Life Alert button off when she went to bed that night.
"The morning call program is a lifesaver," Ms. Kamer said. The program has been in service for more than a decade and has 10 to 15 volunteers who are all extremely compassionate, she said.
"They take the time to get to know the participants, and this may even make them notice if something seems off," she said. "They report any concerns to me."
Ms. Ullemeyer said, in this case, the program definitely worked. "I think there's a need for this for many of the seniors in our community," she said.
Ms. Yost, who has been receiving calls through the program for several years, said it's "excellent."
"The people who call are just so nice," she said. "It's nice to know someone is checking on me."
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