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The group offers hot meals, health screenings, transportation, social activities and more.
Sean Kotz
April 18, 2009
Special to The Roanoke Times
PULASKI -- Since 1975, New River Valley Senior Services has been getting senior citizens out and about and taking hot Meals on Wheels to thankful clients in Floyd, Giles, Montgomery and Pulaski counties and Radford.
But along with providing food, transportation and access to medical care, NRV Senior Services has also been lifting spirits and creating communities that make an important difference in people's lives.
"The more people can get out and the more they can stimulate their minds, the better their quality of life," said Greg Heinline, director of programs for NRV Senior Services since 1986.
The agency, which gets funding through and coordinates with the federal Administration on Aging, provides several programs in the region, including transportation for seniors and disabled people
Utilizing a fleet of 35 vehicles and nine paid drivers, the agency works closely with the Disabilities Service Board and Pulaski Area Transit to get people of all ages, income levels and physical conditions where they need to be.
Heinline, who also directs Pulaski Area Transit, said cooperation between the transit service and NRV Senior Services has made both more efficient.
For many, transportation service is the only way they can get to see a doctor or do shopping, things most people take for granted.
But, as program supervisor Monica Musick pointed out, it can be a very serious matter.
"Getting back and forth for dialysis is a significant need," she said. "Without us, some people wouldn't have any other way to get there."
In 2008, NRV Senior Services made 13,484 trips and carried 205 regular passengers, enabling people to live healthier, more enjoyable lives.
A second service, the Congregate Meals program, brings seniors to nutrition centers in Christiansburg, Blacksburg, Pulaski, Pearisburg, Floyd and Radford two or three days a week, depending on the location.
At these centers, clients arrive early in the day, are fed a meal and participate in social activities. They also get monthly blood pressure and blood sugar checks by nurses.
The program for delivering meals to the homebound, Meals on Wheels, is probably the best known of all the services.
Meals on Wheels delivers hot meals five days a week to people who are unable to cook for themselves. Each meal meets federal nutritional standards.
The agency also delivers frozen meals twice a week to people in rural locations.
Last year, the agency delivered 53,484 meals to 635 clients in the area.
But according to Heinline, "it's not just the meal that matters. It's the fact that they have a one-on-one relationship with the drivers and they are being checked on each day."
Perhaps the best illustration of that happened last week when Giles County driver Frank Bailey of Ripplemead found a client lying on the floor of his home unresponsive and in a diabetic coma.
Bailey called the rescue squad, and according to Heinline, if he had not been there, the man would have died within the hour.
But for Bailey, the real significance of the program is in the daily as much as the dramatic.
In addition to transporting meals five days a week, Bailey, 75, also takes clients to the senior center in Pearisburg three days a week.
Once they arrive, Caroleen Clowers coordinates their activities and makes sure they get a good meal.
"You've got to have a reason to get up in the morning," Bailey said.
"They enjoy talking to each other and playing games with each other, and it gives them something to get up for."
The value of the social contact was reiterated by Musick.
"Without the daily contact, I think they can be very lonely," she said. "Some of our clients have no one else to talk to during the day and no one to check on them."
Heinline encourages people to investigate all the programs if they think they or someone they know may qualify.
You can contact New River Valley Senior Services at (866) 260-4417 or go by its office at 141 E. Main St. in Pulaski.
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