The relaunch of a “friendly caller” program that began in the 1980s and experienced a resurgence during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic will help ensure the safety of isolated individuals living in Clark, Skamania and Klickitat counties.
CDM Caregiving Services — Clark County’s largest and longest running in-home care provider for seniors and people with disabilities — relaunched the free RU OK? Friendly Caller Program on Jan. 1, thanks to a new, three-year $24,625 grant from the Area Agency on Aging and Disabilities of Southwest Washington.
“We’re hoping to assist people who live alone,” said Ginger Barnwell, CDM’s home care manager.
In the RU OK? program, a CDM staff member will make daily or weekly phone calls as needed to check in with elderly and disabled residents.
“We see how they’re doing. Do they need a reminder to take their medication?” Barnwell said. “Our goal is to set it up with the client we’re calling to find out what works for them. Do we call each day? At a certain time of day? It’s on a case-by-case basis.”
The relaunched program is in its early days, with just a handful of clients, said Barnwell, who has worked in the in-home caregiving industry for 15 years and for CDM for the past six years. But the goal is to expand the program through word of mouth and referrals from the Area Agency on Aging and Disabilities and other service providers.
“We’re just starting to get the word out that this program is in existence again,” Barnwell said. “We want to help people stay in their homes as long as they can.”
The RU OK? program can provide peace of mind for family members and friends who are worried about elderly or disabled loved ones living on their own, especially in more remote areas of Clark, Skamania and Klickitat counties, Barnwell said.
“This is a low-cost, potentially lifesaving service for people who don’t have any other safeguards in place. Say you have a neighbor who lives alone and their family lives in a different state and are working and maybe can’t call every day. We can do check-ins with that neighbor and ask things like, ‘How are you doing? Have you taken your meds? Have you made your doctor’s appointments?’ And we can, hopefully, catch things before it escalates to being unsafe for them,” Barnwell said. “If we’re unable to get a hold of them after a certain amount of time, which will be different for every client, we will call their emergency contacts.”
For more information about CDM and the RU OK? Friendly Caller Program, visit cdmcaregiving.org or call 360-896-9695.
