In 2005, the federal government announced that a new prescription drug program would be rolled out in 2006 for all Medicare-eligible seniors. You may recall that this was a confusing and intimidating time for our seniors. All recipients were required to make some type of decision or pay a monthly penalty. The daughter of an affected senior says it best in an e-mail she sent to the department:

"Like so many other individuals, I was running into problems trying to decipher the information provided on the Medicare website. Analyzing and comparing the plans was next to impossible . . ."

Let's face it, many of our seniors are not exactly comfortable using a computer. However, the federal government made using a computer almost necessary for both learning more about the options and enrolling.

Macomb County Department of Senior Citizen Services has a team of Resource Advocates in place who are responsible for helping seniors solve these types of problems. When the program changes were announced, these three individuals jumped into action and began setting up a number of educational seminars throughout the county. Although they were quite well attended, it soon became clear that it was going to be difficult for the three Resource Advocates in the department to reach all one hundred and thirteen thousand (113,000) seniors who were to be affected.

Flooded with phone calls, it soon became apparent that in order to serve the need, a greater response was needed. At this time, every member of the department stepped up to help. All staff took training, familiarized themselves with the website, and began making appointments to work on a one-to-one basis with seniors who asked for help.

The same daughter referenced earlier helps to describe the impact in the rest of her e-mail: ". . . a friend of mine suggested that I enlist your assistance. Where we were hoping for a little direction, we obtained a solution. I can't tell you how relieved my mother was!"

For more information, click Senior Citizen Services