Eunice Cox
By EUNICE COX
Residents in Cupertino, Sunnyvale and other cities throughout the United States are growing a bit older each day. Four years from now, at the turn of the century, 50 percent of us will be 50 years old and older. Welcome to the "graying of America."
Many of us who passed the 50 mark several years ago have learned to value the importance of understanding how best to access resources we may require to enable us to remain active, independent and in control of our own lives or to find assistance when we need it.
Diane Snow, director of the Cupertino Senior Center at Mary Avenue and Stevens Creek Boulevard, has found seniors to be most interested in topics dealing with their health care and their finances.
"Successful aging is achieved through a blending of physical exercise, mental stimulation, socialization and helping others," Snow said. "It is exciting that our Cupertino center provides opportunities in all these areas."
For example, the center is currently presenting a health series on Mondays from 1 to 3 p.m. with physicians who are specialists in various areas of concern to seniors, such as foot care, poor sleep habits, keeping lungs healthy and combating back problems. A Sept. 23 presentation focused on self-defense.
For persons with specific problems, the Cupertino Senior Center has free for the asking a single-sheet reference list of local community services compiled by Vivian Silva, a case manager based at the center. It is probable that many seniors think of a senior center, whether in Cupertino, Sunnyvale or elsewhere, only as a place to play bingo, to attend exercise classes or to sign up for trips or entertainment events. All of these and more are available, but for those who may not care to or who are unable to share in such activities and who may have a need for specific services, Cupertino Senior Center's community resources information is available, regardless of membership status.
Among the most widely used of these resources are: the twice-monthly blood pressure checks; BART ticket purchases; HICAP health insurance counseling; low-interest loans for home repairs; income tax preparation; low-cost meals at Cupertino's nutrition site at Bollinger and Wolfe roads; Project Match, a shared housing program; senior legal assistance (SALA); case manager services; Grandparents Support Groups; Cupertino Senior Day Services at St. Jude Church at the corner of Stelling and McClellan; SHARE and Brown Bag, both low-cost food programs; and Cupertino Community Services, located at Quinlan Center on Stelling Road. Information concerning these and other resources not mentioned here is available through a call to the Cupertino Senior Center at 777-3160 or a visit there on weekdays between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Most of these and other similar resources are also available at the Sunnyvale Senior Center at 820 W. McKinley Ave., including a city-funded nutrition program that serves congregate meals at noon on site the first four days of the week and elsewhere on Friday, according to John Lawrence, leisure services manager for the city of Sunnyvale.
Sunnyvale Senior Day Services is located at 397 S. Mary Avenue. Lawrence added that Sunnyvale Senior Center offers English language classes and translators for those who do not speak English and, through Outreach Inc., transportation services in specified circumstances. The telephone number for the Sunnyvale center is 730-7360, and weekday hours are 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Also available on request at both these senior centers are copies of the Senior Handbook for 1996, a publication of Information and Referral Services Inc., whose countywide telephone number is (800) 255-9333 or, in San Jose only, 345-4532. This publication offers the widest possible listing of resources available for seniors in Santa Clara County.
The federal government contributes at least some funding for many of these resources for seniors through the Older Americans Act (OAA), which is now languishing in Congress on a continuing resolution. It is anticipated that it could be reauthorized now that Congress has reconvened after the Labor Day recess.
Rep. Anna Eshoo, 14th district, has declared herself in support of it. The California State Legislature has authorized a Joint Resolution (AJR 62) requesting "Congress to reauthorize the Older Americans Act to protect the rights of seniors." Reauthorization of the OAA would insure that Congress could then appropriate funds as set forth in various titles of the OAA.
A bill to revise and update the Older Californians ACT (OCA), which works in tandem with the OAA, is now on the governor's desk. Successful passage of both these bills will determine the fate of many senior resources now available in Santa Clara County.
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, September 25, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.