Sara
enrolled in Community Partners on April 24, 2000. She came to the
Outreach office in Cerro Gordo County because she was
having trouble paying
her utility bills. She was referred to Community Partners
because she was
coming into the office frequently due to the
fact that she was forgetting to pay
bills and she was unsure where her money
was going. She was living in Manly
at the time in her own house. Her family moved out of state and her husband
passed away about five years earlier. She was living on Social Security of
$682.00 a month and she was behind on almost every bill
and she owed property
taxes
from the year before on her house. She
met with me, but was very
hesitant
at first because she did not want “anyone telling her what to do”. I
explained the program to her and she stated
that she would try it for a short time.
I arranged to meet with her and we established a
budget. Sara stated that the
mail made her very anxious and that she
hated to open it. She showed me a
dresser full of mail that had never been
opened and I helped her go through it a
little bit at a time. We established this as one of her many goals
and after eight
months of working on it we were able to put
clothes back in the dresser instead
of mail.
She was overjoyed that it was completed and we celebrated with an ice
cream cone.
We continued to work on her budget and to maintain her checking
account.
Sara accessed the Basic Essentials Pantry through Community
Partners for household items so that would free up extra
money for food and
medication.
She came to the decision that maybe she needed to move closer to
Mason City because she was having health problems and her
friends all lived
there.
Sara’s daughter, who is disabled, lives in Mason City also. Sara
made the decision to put her house up for
sale in Manly and I gave her a list of
assisted living facilities. In July of 2000, she decided on a place in
Mason City
that she now wanted to call home. I assisted her with the appropriate paperwork
and we helped her move to Mason City from
her house in Manly when an
apartment became available. She was very anxious at the time to leave the
house that she loved but she knew that she
could no longer afford or maintain it.
Sara’s house sold the following month and it all fell
into place.
Sara
loved her new place and she was starting to meet new people there.
Her rent was $195.00 a month including utilities. Her only other expenses
were the phone and cable bill if she
wanted it. The place that she chose was
all
on one level and there were call buttons
in the rooms so if she fell they would be
able to help her. Sara was taking medications for her anxiety
and her blood
pressure and she was having difficulty paying
for them. We were able to find a
program that helped with some of the cost of
her medication so that she was able
to take them on a regular basis. Sara explained that in the past she would
take
them sometimes and other times she was
unable to afford them. Sara was
maintaining her budget and it had been almost a
year that she had not received
help from an outside agency to pay her
bills. In 2002, we helped Sara enroll in
the Foster Grandparent program to have
some extra spending money and to get
out into the community. She was placed in a daycare room and fell in
love with
the children; she enjoyed getting up each
day to see the kids. I received reports
from the agency stating that she was doing
a really good job and they loved
having her.
I helped her enroll in a program at DHS that covered her Medicare
premiums and also allowed her to have her
Title-19 with a spend down. This
way if Sara ever had to go the hospital
or have surgery that it would help with the
cost.
Sara had a car and she would run errands for people in her apartment and
then they would pay her for gas. Sara’s car broke down in 2004 and she was
unable to pay for the repairs. Community Partners was able to help her pay
her
rent for the month and that freed up money for her to pay
for the car repairs.
In April
of 2006, Sara began experiencing additional health problems. She
was having trouble breathing and she seemed very tired
all the time. She
continued to see her doctor and they gave her different
medications to try. Sara
decided that she could no longer continue with the job
that she had at the
daycare. This made
Sara depressed and she was having trouble sleeping. She
was not maintaining her apartment and she was having
trouble with her activities
of daily living.
In July, we filed the paperwork to see if she was able to get on the
Elderly waiver through DHS. This would open doors for Sara and maybe give
her the boost that was needed. She was approved for the waiver and Sara was
able to get a home health aide to help her with cleaning,
bathing and laundry.
She was able to get Mom’s Meals delivered to her door so
that she did not have
to worry about cooking food. This really helped Sara a lot and she seemed
happier now that things were being taken care of. In November of 2006, Sara’s
health took a nosedive.
She went in to the doctor for a chest X-ray because she
was getting over a cold and they found a spot on her lung
and decided to do a
biopsy on it; it turned out to be cancer. They decided to do a CAT scan and MRI
and it was determined that she had cancer in her brain as
well. Sara started to
show symptoms from
the cancer in her brain through her speech, she was
stuttering and slurring her words. At times it was really hard to understand
what
she wanted and needed.
In December of 2006, she received radiation treatment
and Community Partners was there through it all. We helped her get to some
appointments and went to doctor’s visits with her. We informed doctors what
services were in place already in her home to avoid
duplication. Sara was given
three to five months to live. She stated that she was going to beat
it. Sara
decided to enroll in Hospice, which opened up more doors
to her if her medical
condition got worse and she was unable to live at
home. Sara continues to battle
cancer and is living day to day with the ongoing support
of the Community
Partners program.