SOUNDER THE ISLANDS’
Serving Orcas, Lopez and San Juan County
WEDNESDAY, November 19, 2014 VOL. 47, NO. 47 75¢ islandssounder.com
First holiday events of season – page 9
Not forgotten: seniors struggle in winter by CALI BAGBY
Cali Bagby/Staff Photo
Assistant Editor
For seniors facing the winter months, Marla Johns said there are three concerns: depression, isolation and an increase of falls. “It’s a sad, lonely time,” said Johns, the Senior Services coordinator for the Orcas Senior Center. One problem winter presents is shorter days. Even in daylight, overcast skies can make visibility a problem. For seniors with poor eyesight, the winter weather makes driving a difficult task. According to Johns, this causes seniors to venture out less and become more isolated. The winter also presents a time when the roads are slippery and seniors are more likely to fall. Many seniors are also dependent on wood to warm their homes in colder months. Chopping, stacking and collecting wood creates more opportunities for an older person to fall and injure themselves. Despite the hazards, Johns said it’s understandable that people continue to chop wood even as they age. “No one wants to give up anything,” she said. Johns comes from the school of thought that seniors are people who have “built the world we live in.”
Volunteer Crystal Taylor (at left) works at the Orcas Senior Center 15 hours a week. Joyce Green, at right, comes to the center twice a week and for special events.
But often these are the people who are forgotten in society. Johns sees many people who do not have family members come visit them during the holiday season, which causes depression. “It’s hard to see people without anyone. It’s a lonely time of life,” she said. “Some of these people have even outlived their children.”
Johns urges people in the community to reach out to elderly neighbors or people they know that live alone. “Falling down in a home is not about having a ‘Lifeline’ or not,” she said. “It’s about people not looking out for one another.” There are several programs in place that aim to support seniors
in tough times. The Orcas Cares program is an emergency service for seniors that attempts to meet the unmet needs of seniors like cleaning a home or providing caregiver services. Hearts and Hands, whose office is at the Orcas Senior Center, pairs up volunteers with adults. Lahari is also an organization
Questions remain as new ferry reservation program nears launch date by SCOTT RASMUSSEN Journal editor
The big payoff isn’t expected until the summer sailing season, when demand is at its peak, lines are long and it’s pretty much anyone’s guess how early one should show up to catch a ferry headed to or leaving the San Juan Islands. In the meantime, islanders, along with everyone else, will have back-to-back sailing schedules – winter and spring – with which to experiment following the debut of Washington State Ferries’ new and expanded, and San Juans-customized, reservation system. Beginning Dec. 2, along with release of the wintertime lineup of sailings, the light
turns green on making travel plans in what is undoubtedly the slowest of sailing seasons. Still, if the Port Townsend-Keystone run is of any measure, WSF’s Reservations Manager Dwight Hutchinson believes that the ability to secure travel space ahead of time should prove a blessing rather than a burden for islanders and visitors alike once the much busier sailing seasons roll around. Ridership is up, he said, while congestion is down at the ferry terminals in Port Townsend and Keystone (Whidbey Island), where a reservation system somewhat similar to the San Juans went into effect two years ago. “One of the amazing things that’s happened
at the Keystone-Port Townsend run is that ridership is up, but the line is way down,” Hutchinson said at an informational forum Saturday, Nov. 15, in Friday Harbor. “People aren’t showing up way ahead of time hoping that they’re early enough to get on a boat.” The mechanics of making a reservation are fairly straight forward, and the state ferry system has invested in getting the word out, in staffing and hardware as well, like a new telephone system, all in effort to make reservations as user-friendly as possible. More on the that in a moment; a little history first.
SEE WSF, PAGE 6
whose mission statement is “to support aged or infirm people up to and including provisions of hospice care.” It also runs the Orcas Safe Homes project which provides free in-home safety evaluations and advice on how to implement any recommendations that are made. Another resource available when needed is access to private individuals who work as home health care aids. They can come into homes to assist with short or long term needs. This caregiver directory can be found at the Orcas Library and the Hearts and Hands office. To see the binder at the Hearts and Hands office call Didier Gincig to make an appointment at 376-7723. “We really should not even have to have a program like this,” said Johns about Hearts and Hands. “Helping seniors should be a lifestyle.”
SEE SENIORS, PAGE 3
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