Baltimore County, MD Time of Your LIfe, 1 May 2019

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From YouTube: Maryland Access Point (MAP): An Overview of Services

Description

Mary R. Pivawer, MSW, Manager, Maryland Access Point and Community Outreach, Baltimore County Department of Aging.

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(Upbeat music).

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Welcome to the time of your life with the baltimore county department of aging., I'm your host, ethel rasmussen..

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Our goal on the time of your life is to keep you in the know. By conveying important and interesting information about the contemporary topics, events,.

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And resources that benefit you,, our viewing audience.

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This show also offers many options for socializing,, fun, and travel,. Let's start the fun..

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Today's show empowers our viewers with information and resources,. The baltimore county department of aging is known for it's regional resource guide, called community resources.

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stay tuned to learn more about this annual publication with debbie orlove, community business liaison at the department of aging. debbie will also conclude. Today's show with senior center travel, senior box office, and what's happening at your local senior center..

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We are pleased to start the show by providing a segment that connects our viewers to a multitude of resources with mary pivawer, manager of maryland access point and community outreach.

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At the department of aging. welcome to the show, mary. welcome and thank you for having me.. Let's start with an start with an explanation of maryland access, point, or map,. What is map's primary function?.

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So the maryland access point office is an excellent place to begin your research on programs and services.

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That are available for older adults,, as well as individuals with disabilities..

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When you speak with the maryland access point office.

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You are talking with a certified information and referral specialist,, someone who has been specially trained with knowledge about aging and disability, issues.

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And they are tapping into a large database of.

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Resource information on programs and services.

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That they can share with people.

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It could be information about programs offered directly at the baltimore county department of aging, things that are offered in the larger baltimore county government,, as well as local nonprofits.

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Or for-profit programs and services.

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And what we want to do is hear a little bit about your situation,, assess your needs, and then try and connect you with those services..

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We don't know all the answers,, but we are trying to at least put you in touch with an expert who does.

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Typically, we receive calls about a whole range of issues..

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It can be someone who's, just new to retirement.

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And wants to find out more about enrolling in medicare, or ways to connect to their local senior center,.

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Or volunteer opportunities in their retirement., it could be an individual who recently had an illness.

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And is finding it more difficult to manage independently in their home and wants to be able to bring some resources and programs into their homes so that they can stay there longer and safer.

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all the way up to individuals who maybe need.

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A very high level of care,, like assisted living and nursing homes., we're very happy to receive calls both from older adults, from people with disabilities, their family members,, their caregivers,, as well as professionals who are working with those folks in their field.

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I understand map also operates a loan closet..

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Can you talk about that program and the equipment? That's available?.

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Yeah,, the loan closet is one of our most popular resources..

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It offers durable medical equipment to older adults who are baltimore county residents and age 60 and over.

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So things like wheelchairs and rollators.

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And walkers, bathroom safety, equipment, things like raised toilet seats or tub seats to make getting in and out of the bath easier and safer.

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That equipment is available to loan to individuals.

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Free of charge. there are some items that have a small deposit,, but the deposit is returned back to you.

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When you are done using the item,, you can keep it for as long as you need and bring it back to us when you are done.

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And then we will sanitize it and make it available to somebody else.. The other area that we're pleased to have expanded our loan closet into is into assistive devices.

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Those are typically smaller devices that are probably.

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Less familiar and less well-known to people,, but that offer, what we do is we offer demonstrations.

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Of those devices in our office to people to see if they are items that work for them before they are going out to purchase them for themselves.

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You mentioned the assistive device demonstrations,, but what is an assistive device?.

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Okay, so an assistive device is any type of equipment or item that allows you to have an easier.

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Time of managing your activities of daily living,.

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Or a safer time of doing that., so what you have could be items that are very simple.

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And very cost-effective that, say, for someone with.

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Vision loss might enlarge the print for somebody.

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Or come automatically with larger print., all the way up to devices that are more technologically.

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Complicated that may take a picture of the text.

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And read it back to you so that you don't have to have the ability to see it. Yourself.

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[Ethal], what type of devices are available in map??

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We tried to create a closet of items that really offers.

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A whole range of different types of devices.

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For people with different types of disability., so obviously we do have some items for folks with vision. Loss,, we have items to help with hearing loss,.

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And then we have items that focus on different types of activities of daily living,, so things like getting dressed, or reaching something, or cooking, or eating, drinking devices,.

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Different kinds of things that make it easier for folks., I understand you have some of the assistive devices.

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With you here today., can you share with our viewing audience what are their purposes and what can they help? Individuals, with?

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So these are a couple of different items.

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The first two items are things that are designed.

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To help with medication management., so this is a very small device..

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What it is designed to do is two things; one is to,. It's a magnifying glass that allows you to.

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Make the print on the bottle a little larger.

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So, to make sure that you are taking the right item.

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And then the top allows you a little bit easier way.

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To manage to open the device, because that sometimes is a challenge for people., so it's really a very simple way to grab it.

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And open it up., so that's the kind of thing. That's very small and very simple, does not cost a lot of money..

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This device is a little more complicated and it will allow the opportunity to be able to.

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Setup, your medications..

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All these different holes are different times of day.

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And days of the week., you pre-program this device and set it here.

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And when it is time to take your medication, it is going to rotate to the hole,.

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It's gonna open, up, and it's gonna beep until you take the time to turn the device over.

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And get your medication out. [ethel], what a good reminder. yeah.

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and then I brought along a couple things that are helpful in the kitchen.. These are items that protect when you are using a knife.

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So it is a cut-resistant glove to protect. You.

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In case that you have some hand, dexterity problems,,.

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It will prevent you from actually getting cut.

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And this one is a spatula that is designed, again,.

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For people with some hand, management, difficulties.,.

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This,, instead of you having to flip the item,, will automatically flip it for you..

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How neat is that, right?.

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So maps resources are available to support.

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For a variety of needs, obviously., based on what you've shared today about map services, how would our viewers learn about map resources as well as how to participate in the assistive device? Demonstrations?.

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So the best thing to do is to call our office, that way, we can explore a little bit with you to make sure we're connecting you with the right program and resources and to allow us,.

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If you are interested in seeing the devices, to be able to schedule an appointment for you., you can contact us by calling 410-887-2594.

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And I believe for those that would like to use the computer,, they can also email you at aginginfo@baltimorecountymd.gov.

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And on the screen, there's also a website that they can do a little bit more research. correct. all right, well thank you, mary, for being on the show today and providing such valuable information.

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you're welcome. before we take a short break. I'd like to share some information about bcda's senior solutions, conference.

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This is a professional conference on may 30th at the crawford conference center at the medstar franklin square, offering ceu credits.

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For social workers., the conference is titled living connected, strategies to combat social isolation..

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For more information, please call 410-887-2002.

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Or register online. when we return we'll learn about community resources, 2019, a publication supporting baltimore communities.

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