New outreach professional to help seniors get food, exercise or just good company.
By: Leon Tovey
MONROE For years, the Monroe Township Senior Center has offered a variety of services and activities to older residents out of its base of operations in the township municipal complex. Now the center is extending those services to the homes of residents who can’t come to them.
Rita Whitney, director of the Monroe Township Office on Aging, which runs the senior center, said the center has 9,500 registered members. According to township estimates, there are nearly 15,000 people over 65 in the township.
That leaves more than 4,000 seniors who have no access to the services the center offers. Those services range from exercise classes and tax assistance to grief counseling after the loss of a spouse.
In an effort to reach seniors who won’t or can’t come to the center, the Office on Aging in December hired Carol Merwin as a full-time senior outreach professional.
Ms. Merwin works in conjunction with Bonnie Leibowitz, the center’s senior outreach coordinator, and Judy Kalman, the center’s program counseling supervisor, to identify the needs of seniors in the community.
But where Ms. Leibowitz and Ms. Kalman are both based primarily at the center, Ms. Merwin will focus on those who are homebound or unable to care entirely for themselves by visiting them in their homes.
"I work very closely with the EMS and with nursing home staff," Ms. Merwin said. "When they see someone who’s in need they let me know, and I’ll go in and see what I can do."
Ms. Merwin, a registered nurse and trained social worker who previously worked in the township’s administrative office, said that on her visits to residents’ homes she assesses their needs whether it be food, exercise or just company and refers them to people or organizations who can help.
She said she’s made 10 such visits since starting her job in December and expects to start making more "house calls" now that the holiday season is over.
Ms. Whitney said the visits are an integral part of the center’s mission and one that has become much more important in recent years.
"We’ve always done this type of outreach," Ms. Whitney said. "But we have realized now that the elderly population in the community is growing and becoming more elderly."
Ms. Whitney, who served as outreach coordinator for the center prior to being appointed director in 1999, said she’s particularly concerned about the growing number of residents in their 80s and 90s in the township.
Ms. Merwin agreed, saying that even relatively healthy people in this age group often need more help than they used to.
"Many people don’t even realize they need help," Ms. Merwin said. "And some of them just don’t have anybody."

