Boothbay Region Health & Wellness Foundation President Patty Seybold recently announced the launch of a new service on the Boothbay peninsula, called the “Awesome Seniors Program.”

Beginning in May, this program will provide a services coordinator who will match seniors who need help with seniors (and other volunteers) who can provide that help, or with vetted and trusted local paid professionals. For seniors whose families are debating whether it’s safe for them to continue living on their own, the Awesome Seniors program will provide a social safety net. For an additional fee, seniors can add 24-hour wellness monitoring.

This will be a volunteer and membership program. Members will pay a small monthly fee and donate four hours a month helping others. Everyone has something to offer, whether it’s making phone calls, keeping someone company, giving them a ride to the hairdresser, or adding someone else’s grocery shopping to your own.

The combined membership fees will pay for the services of a professional Awesome Seniors’ coordinator. The coordinator can arrange for a volunteer to help you get things done. If the services you need are beyond the capabilities of our local volunteers (professional nursing care, electrical work, heavy yard work, etc.), the coordinator will arrange for services from a trusted, local professional. You will pay for that service when it is rendered at an Awesome Seniors’ discounted rate.

For people who live alone and/or who have disabilities, or who don’t drive at night, or at all, or are just no longer able to do everything they’d like to be able to do for themselves, Awesome Seniors can lend a helping hand.

Our family, friends and neighbors help out, but sometimes we don’t like to keep asking for help and we’d like to be more self-sufficient. The Boothbay region offers many services, but sometimes it’s daunting to know about all of them, or to know whom to call.

The new Awesome Seniors program will connect seniors (or others) needing help with seniors (or others) who can help, as well as with the many volunteer and paid services that are already available right here in the community.

The Wellness Foundation's Awesome Seniors committee has been designing and piloting services for local seniors for a year. This new program is a result of their efforts. It is the goal of the Awesome Seniors to enable people on the Boothbay peninsula to be able to age gracefully in the comfort of their own homes. The program will start as a pilot in May 2015.

Although our program is similar to the Village-to-Village Network model, the members of the Awesome Seniors’ governing committee hasn’t yet decided whether to become an official member of the Village-to-Village Network.

Members will pay a monthly membership fee, plus four hours of your time per month as a volunteer to other Awesome Seniors. The monthly fee is on a sliding scale based on your annual net income. Nobody will know how much you pay. This information will be kept private. In order to accommodate many of our seasonal residents, the minimum membership period will be three months.

Each member will receive a set of coordinated services to suit one’s particular needs. You will call and request services (usually 48 hours in advance), and our coordinator will arrange them for you.

The basic services currently planned include: rides to and from meetings, social outings, errands, fitness classes, community events, library, movies, concerts, as well as for medical appointments (the latter will typically be handled through FISH). Transportation to and from evening events for those who prefer not to drive after dark; in-home visits to help around the house, work on small projects, help with household chores, accompany you while you walk, spot you while you exercise; grocery shopping for you or with you; recycling runs; laundry, drop off/pick up dry cleaning, make your bed; cooking and company for meals; entertainment including chess, checkers, bridge, mahjong, other games, music, movies, reading aloud, sewing and crafts; and dog-walking and pet care.

Awesome Seniors can help you arrange services provided by paid professionals, including: in home visits by the District Nurse and/or by our Community Paramedics to monitor your health and reconcile your medications; personal training or physical therapy by paid professionals; help with bathing, showering, dressing and supervision of your exercise routine by experienced professionals; and arrange needed services by trusted local specialists like plumbers, electricians, snow removal, housekeeping, catering, handyman, car repair, lawn and garden care, etc.

One of the vetted professionals the Awesome Seniors have been working with, Dr. “Chip” Teel, offers three levels of round-the-clock services so that members and their families can receive the peace of mind of having a healthcare safety net. There is an additional monthly fee for the “Full Circle America” services and the fees depend upon your current needs: Quick Call button that will notify your family/friends/neighbor; alert your physician, and call 911, as necessary. The 24-hr. answering service is local and knows where you are, what you need, and whom to call; 24-hr. monitoring service with video check-ins to keep an eye on you to make sure you're OK. This gives you the independence of living on your own, but provides your family with the ability to see how you're doing and to know that if you've fallen or are having trouble, you'll have a friendly voice call you to help, and the appropriate emergency personnel will be notified promptly; and chronic disease management, which is a combination of convenient, in-home vital signs collection, and teleconsults with a local physician, all to ensure that you're staying fit and within the appropriate ranges for blood pressure, weight, oxygen saturation, pulse, blood sugar.

For more information, and/or to sign up for the pilot program, call 207-350-5833 and ask to talk about the Awesome Seniors program. To help shape the program, join the Awesome Seniors committee. Our next meetings are on Friday, March 27 and Friday April 10 from 3 to 4:30 p.m. at the Boothbay Town Office.