Butler County Elderly Services Program 2023 Annual Report Success Stories

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ESP helps Middletown man adapt to major life changes

Sometimes we decide to make changes in our life. And sometimes, life decides for us. Changes certainly happened to Leamul. Through necessity, Leamul, 61, had to make big changes in his life. When those changes got the better of him, the Butler County Elderly Services Program (ESP) helped him through.

When Leamul was in the workforce, he was a hardworking semi-truck driver. Then the change came. An accident left him with injuries that confined him to an electric wheelchair.

Bills piled up. Clutter took over his Middletown apartment. His landlord threatened eviction. There wasn’t room to maneuver his wheelchair, and many days he could only remain in the corner. Because his home was unclean, he was not able to get a home care provider and his family didn’t want to visit.

As if this weren’t difficult enough, food insecurity was a daily part of Leamul’s life.

Leamul needed help and he found it in the Elderly Services Program – one step at a time.

First, ESP performed a major household cleaning, purging much of the clutter in his apartment and providing lightweight cleaning supplies, including a vacuum and mop, so he could better maintain things on his own.  

With a clutter-free home, the eviction notices stopped, and he was able to move around his own space. The landlord was now able to enter the apartment and perform needed maintenance to the appliances, flooring and lighting.

“I finally had room to breathe. I couldn’t go on my balcony because I had bikes stored there,” he recalls. “Now I can go out and I’m looking forward to getting my new walker so I can stand there.”

With the major housekeeping work complete, ESP arranged to have an aide visit Leamul three hours each week to stay on top of things and help with laundry and cleaning he is unable to do on his own. He also began receiving home-delivered meals, checking another item off his list of needs.

The architect behind this transformation was Leamul’s ESP care manager, Hannah, or ‘Hannah-Hannah-BoBanna,’ as he calls her. “She’s been a great help. She came in, assessed the problem, and then did what was needed. She deserves a raise.”

Because of ESP’s support, his four children and two grandchildren can visit. His granddaughter especially enjoys cuddling on his lap. “That’s worth living for,” he says with a smile.

“Now, ESP is constantly with me, so I can function like I’m supposed to.”

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Butler County agencies step in to fill gaps following Central Connections contract termination

Partnerships play an important role in ensuring older adults receive the services they need to live safely and independently at home. Council on Aging (COA), the Area Agency on Aging for southwestern Ohio, including Butler County, is fortunate to have the support of a strong network of service provider partners who share in COA’s commitment to delivering high-quality services.

This partnership was put to the test – and passed with flying colors – in July when COA made the difficult decision to terminate its contracts with Central Connections.

Located in Middletown and formerly known as the Middletown Area Senior Services, Central Connections provided services including congregate and home-delivered meals, transportation and other supportive services to more than 1,300 older adults in Butler and Warren counties.

COA took this action as a result of several breaches of contract on the part of Central Connections which were connected to the organization’s financial stability and service delivery requirements. Before delivering termination notices on July 24, 2023, COA conducted dozens of site visits and repeatedly requested information which would bring Central Connections into compliance with its contracts.  

Area Agencies on Aging, like Council on Aging, play an integral role in managing the provider network that delivers home- and community-based services to area older adults via publicly-funded programs, including provider procurement, contracting and ongoing oversight and management. It is because of this relationship and oversight that COA was able to quickly identify and then begin monitoring concerns related to Central Connections.

In the weeks following COA’s actions, Central Connections’ executive director was terminated, most of its staff laid off, and the property was purchased by the city of Middletown. The building’s future remains uncertain. The issue received extensive local interest and media coverage.

During this time, COA’s priority was ensuring the continuity of services for impacted older adults. COA’s Provider Relations Department worked with a team of other contracted service providers to successfully transition all 1,300 clients who’d been receiving services from Central Connections.

Several Butler County service providers played an integral role in the transition process, helping to ensure clients received their services: Community First Solutions, Meals on Wheels of Butler County, LifeSpan and The Fleet. Additional support came from Meals on Wheels Southwest OH & Northern KY and Warren County Community Services, Inc.

“Asking a service provider to take on new clients with very little notice is no small task,” said Jennifer Lake, provider services supervisor at Council on Aging. “We are fortunate that our provider network shares our commitment to ensuring clients receive their scheduled services. These providers demonstrated what true partnership is about – stepping in without hesitation to meet the needs of impacted older adults.”

Lake and other members of COA’s provider relations team worked with the providers, COA case managers and other community partners to prepare for the downstream impact of the contract terminations. This included:

• determining the appropriate provider to serve each of the 1,300 impacted older adults
• notifying each client about changes to their services and service provider
• transitioning clients to existing transportation and meal-delivery routes
• ensuring meal delivery to seven congregate meal sites previously served by Central Connections

“At every level, the staff at these organizations really came through for older adults,” said Ken Wilson, COA’s vice president of program operations. “From meal drivers to HR personnel, these service providers exceeded our expectations for responding to this situation. With very little notice, they responded to our call for help and demonstrated a level of professionalism and compassion I will not soon forget,” Wilson added.

To ensure clients experienced minimal – if any – disruption in their impacted services, a lot of work took place behind the scenes. According to Wilson and Lake, the providers: hired and trained staff; added routes; and rapidly expanded their capacity, including securing more supplies and equipment. Additionally, staff at these organizations accumulated a significant amount of extra work hours to ramp up for the transition and adjust to the increase service volume.

Community First Solutions supported the transition on many levels, including through its partner organizations Meals on Wheels of Butler County (Partners in Prime), LifeSpan (care management) and The Fleet (transportation services). The organization assisted with home-delivered meal deliveries, ultimately absorbed all the Independent Living Assistance clients and provided transportation services. Additionally, care management staff at LifeSpan played a critical role in contacting impacted clients to answer questions and share information about their new service provider.

“This was an urgent and constantly evolving situation,” said Karen Dages, director of in-home services at Meals on Wheels of Butler County – part of Community First Solutions.  “It was hard to know exactly the numbers and impact, and as ‘a few’ became ‘many’ additional clients, this impacted our routes, workflow and supplies.”

Dages stressed the importance of good communication during a crisis situation. “Constant and frequent communication with COA was key because everyone had bits and pieces of the story and we were all just trying to be flexible and give each other grace.  Our focus was on serving the clients together.”

“We always strive to be good and faithful partners and this was an example of what and how we do it,” Dages added.

Other provider organizations contributed to the success of this project:

Warren County Community Services, Inc. (WCCS): Staff at WCCS assumed some home-delivered meal deliveries, as well as Independent Living Assistance clients. The organization volunteered to take over the congregate meal sites once operated by Central Connections.

Meals on Wheels of Southwest OH & Northern KY: Meals on Wheels stepped in to support both home-delivered and congregate meal delivery, taking on seven congregate meals sites until they could be permanently transferred to WCCS.

At COA, Lake said, “I was struck by the lack of hesitation on the part of these providers to step in and meet the need. I heard from these providers – and others who helped with this effort – that the clients were the most important part of this transition, and no one was prepared to let them go without services.”

Lake added that she was impressed with the level of commitment and creativity demonstrated by the providers to deliver the services while still meeting program requirements. She noted that the service providers committed to this work without the promise of clients being permanently assigned to their business.

One of the more challenging service needs to arise out of the contract terminations was congregate meals. Congregate meals play an important role in meeting both the nutritional and social needs of older adults. Central Connections had provided ready-to-serve meals at seven different meal sites in Butler County, including a meal that was no longer able to be served in the Central Connections facility. COA received offers of support from several individuals and community organizations to serve as an alternative site for the congregate meal that was previously served at Central Connections.

First Presbyterian Church, located just down the road from Central Connections in Middletown, opened its doors as a temporary congregate meal site. Additionally, COA worked with MidPointe Library, which hosts congregate meals at three of its branch locations, to raise awareness of alternative meal sites.

“MidPointe has been a tremendous partner to COA in allowing us to offer congregate meals in places where older adults are already gathering,” COA’s Wilson said. “Because of this partnership, we were able to provide alternative meal options to the older adults who had been attending the meal at Central Connections.”

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Successful library-based congregate meal program adds new locations

In 2022, Council on Aging began offering congregate meals at the West Chester branch of the MidPointe Library System. The weekly meal helped fill a gap left after the closure of an area senior center. The meal proved to be so popular that COA and MidPointe decided to expand the meal program to two additional library locations: Trenton and Monroe. Click here to read more.

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Senior Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program continues to grow in Butler County

During the pandemic, Council on Aging worked with a group of Butler County community members, farmers and the Ohio Department of Aging to secure a $180,000 grant to bring this popular program to the region. In Butler County, enrollment in the program has increased 147% since 2020, with 535 older adults enrolled in 2023. The program provides $50 in coupons to eligible, low-income older adults for use at participating farmers’ markets and roadside stands.