WREX.com – Rockford’s News LeaderElderly may lose senior services they depend on

Elderly may lose senior services they depend on

By Marissa Alter

ILLINOIS (WREX) - The Illinois Department on Aging braces to cut $18 million from its budget. Reductions will affect the Community Care Program and be felt by agencies all over the region.

Lifescape's Brightside Adult Day Service expects to be hit especially hard. It currently has three locations in Rockford and Belvidere. The cuts likely mean two of those will close as the program loses up to half its 125 clients.

Vivian Mae White comes to Brightside's Adult Day Service program twice a week.

"I enjoy coming here just to be around other people," she says.

She's been a client for three years and imagines lonely days without it.

"Most of these people need to come here so that they have something else to do."

At Brightside, senior citizens get support and supervision. Many have dementia or Alzheimer's and need constant monitoring while family members are at work. Others live on their own, but CCP funding allows them to stay independent.

"These people now will not have anywhere to go," explains Brightside Services Director Donna Addison. "They may have to go into a more restrictive environment like a nursing home. There's nothing wrong with a nursing home--it's just more expensive."

And it's not just the clients who'll be hit. Family and caregivers will feel the impact just as much. Addison describes it as a domino effect.

"If you've got somebody who's working and now can't keep their loved one in Brightside, they need to figure out what they're going to do about their jobs," Addison explains.

"We really need something like this," states White. "Most of the time when people get into this condition, a lot of people turn their back on them and don't want to help them. They don't realize that one day they'll be in the same condition."

Addison says Brightside will likely have to close its Belvidere and Taber Lutheran Church sites.