Per my “Thank you Trumbull County Voters” article printed after the November 2024 election approving the replacement levy ballot language, the next step in this process is to review effective spending of the additional taxpayers’ dollars totaling $1.2 million that will be received beginning in 2026.

Prior to and in anticipation of the receipt of the additional funds, the Senior Services Council began to contract areas of service with the greatest waiting list for service starting September 2024. The largest increase was awarded to in-home services for homemaker, personal care and home-delivered meal service dollars at double the amount from previous allocations for approximately $600,000.

Sad to say, but this is just a dent in the amount needed for in-home care. It’s human nature to want to stay in the comforts of your home, with the familiarity of your surroundings, and to maintain independence.

This is one of the very basic qualities that the available programs are trying to accomplish is to “age in place.” To age in place is to maintain quality of life while receiving support from family, friends, or the community.

Recently, my sister who lives in Pennsylvania, barely 60 years old, has been diagnosed with multiple cancers throughout her body. Her own husband is disabled as well.

She hasn’t even started chemotherapy, yet other complications keep rearing their ugly head to delay the start of chemo. Knowing the difficulties that lie ahead, she is fortunate to have three adult sons, although young adults who are trying to figure out their own places in the world, who have stepped up their game and are assisting with every barrier that comes along.

For that matter, she is lucky to have family for support.

We have set up a family group text to keep everyone aware of upcoming doctor appointments, to share planned treatments, and to assign which family member will provide that day’s transport. We have thought about the home needs for safe maneuvering once she comes home, as she now will have mobility issues due to a tumor recently found on her spine that cannot be surgically removed.

Thank goodness for the UPMC equipment program in Farrell, Pa., called MERP-Medical Equipment Recycling Program — which connected the family with a donated hospital bed for her use.

Next on the list, found by a family member, is an organization that will build a ramp needed for wheelchair access and then registration with the transportation system in her area. Every day, another resource seems to be needed as everyone in this family village is trying to navigate the barriers. As we tell my sister, “it does take a village,” and luckily, she has that. She has us.

Not everyone has that support system. The generations following the baby boomers do not have children, which leaves possibly even less family support as those generations age. Even those with local extended family members do not mean that family members will step in to help or even want to do so for whatever reason or past aggressions of the family.

The senior levy providers do their best to stretch the dollars by trying to serve those without the financial means to pay for the service, to serve those without the support system, and to provide the most basic of needs to serve more.

I understand the frustration of being placed on a waiting list, as I hear the concerns from those on that list. For those receiving services through senior levy programs, I know the appreciation is there to be getting at least some service instead of none.

I also understand the difficulty the providers have to serve the most basic of needs in order to serve the many.

The phone call requesting in-home care, knowing that we have a wait list, is the most difficult part of this job, as I have the compassion and desire to serve. I often reach out to the providers of service, asking them to just serve one more person as I listen to that person’s needs when they call my office.

During this time of Lent, I wish I had the miracle power of Jesus to take five loaves of bread and two fish to feed the masses. The providers, the Senior Services Advisory Council, and the community are doing their best to serve and will continue to do so to continue aging in place.

For additional information, contact Trumbull County Senior Levy Administrator Diane Siskowic-Jurkovic at 330-675-7846 or sljurkov@co.trumbull.oh.us.