Trending
EAST PALESTINE -- When Barb Kliner shared her plans to start a community organization to support and benefit East Palestine's aging population, she had a long list of services she hoped to implement in the village. One of those services was a buddy system -- a network of volunteers willing to reach out and make contact with older residents who live alone.
Through a newly launched county program, EPGO -- the organization Kliner founded in September -- that outreach is now possible.
"One of the things I talked about when I started this group was partnerships and working to find in the county and in the state programs to help our older population," Kliner said. "And already, after just a couple months, we found a partnership through a county grant that offers the Golden Friends program. It kind of ties in with the program I was talking about, the buddy program. In this one, they pair up volunteers with homebound people and all they are asking is that you go visit them twice a month."
Golden Friends is a peer-based program connecting volunteers aged 55 or older with homebound individuals also 55 or older. According to the Lisbon-based Senior Support Action Group (SSAG), the program asks volunteers to visit otherwise isolated residents twice a month to share stories, laughs and time.
"We all have parents and grandparents who are sometimes home alone. Think about how much a visit from someone would mean to them," Kliner said. "Or as you get older, you will start to understand how much a visitor or a telephone call during the day when you don't talk to anyone really means to some of these people."
SSAG -- a nonprofit organization that serves homebound seniors ages 55 and older in Mahoning, Trumbull, Columbiana and Jefferson counties who live at or below 200% of the federal poverty threshold -- describes Golden Friends as an in-home compassionate program designed to reduce isolation and improve emotional well-being for homebound seniors in Columbiana County. Seniors, who are trained as volunteers, provide emotional support and companionship to their peers, fostering meaningful connections that enhance quality of life and reduce their suicide risk. Each participant is paired with a peer volunteer. To visit twice a month to combat loneliness.
Besides training, volunteers undergo a background check paid for through the grant.
Kliner, herself, has already completed the training with Paige Fortner, the program manager for SSAG, and was surprised that suicide prevention was highlighted.
"I took the training and it wasn't at all what I thought it was going to be. The focus was on suicide prevention. I had no idea that suicide rate in our county was very, very high, particularly older people and especially for men," Kliner said. "I went through the whole training and learned all this stuff and I raised my hand and I said 'is this really an issue' because I didn't know."
The Health Policy Institute of Ohio cites that suicide rates in Ohio vary greatly by county, with higher rates often found in Appalachian and rural counties. Columbiana County has the unfortunate distinction of having higher rates in the state. Statewide, suicide rates among Ohioans 65 or older is 16.9%. The Summary Assessment of Older Ohioans found that Ohioans age 60 and older have high rates of depression, and suicide deaths among this group have increased by 40% over the last 10 years, while the National Council on Aging cites that suicide attempts are more likely to end in death for older adults than for younger adults. Older men die by suicide at a rate that is more than seven times higher than that of older women and four times higher than the nation's overall rate of suicide.
"Older gentlemen, their wife has died, their kids are gone and they don't have anybody to tell them what to do and they're lost," Kliner said. "They are only thinking about going to a nursing home, so there is a need."
Golden Friends hopes to fill that need and is looking for community partnerships to make a difference by making connections. The program is asking for volunteer visitors willing to undergo the training and they are seeking referrals of homebound seniors who could benefit from companionship and support.
To learn more about the Golden Friends or to get involved, contact Fortner at 330-271-6622 or pfoerner@fesserves.org. The program is partnered with the SSAG, Retired, Senior Volunteer Program, Ohio Suicide Prevention Foundation, Ohio Suicide Prevention Foundation and the Jerry Williams Memorial Fund.
As for EPGO, Golden Friends is just one of many services the group hopes to bring to the village of East Palestine.
"We are on the road to doing a lot of the things we had envisioned as far as going out there and finding programs to bring into town to make people aware," Kliner said. "We are out there beating the bushes and looking for things that we can help benefit our community. There are programs put there."