Willow Glen Resident

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Senior services fall short of goals outlined in county's 10-year plan

By Lydia Sarraille

A 10-year plan intended to improve services for seniors living in Santa Clara County has fallen short of its goals, according to a report released by the Santa Clara County civil grand jury on April 23.

Only five out of 24 key goals outlined in "Community for a Lifetime: A Ten-Year Strategic Plan to Advance the Well-Being of Santa Clara County's Older Adults" have been completed since the county and the city of San Jose sponsored the plan, which was released in December 2004 and endorsed by the San Jose City Council in February 2005.

Programs such as subsidized taxi service, a senior website in each city and the formation of permanent leadership and funding plans for the strategic plan have not happened.

The grand jury attributes the shortfall to a lack of effective leadership and cooperation between the various agencies taking part in the plan.

Thirty-eight agencies and offices both public and private are listed as partners in the plan, including United Way Silicon Valley, Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, the cities of Gilroy, Los Altos, Milpitas, Morgan Hill, Mountain View and Palo Alto, and town of Los Gatos as well as various county and San Jose city offices and religious organizations.

The grand jury suggested the creation of a joint powers authority to jump-start the plan. The grand jury report requests the city council and board of supervisors jointly take action to create the joint powers authority for the purpose of accomplishing the remaining goals of the plan.

Representatives of Santa Clara County said they couldn't comment on the report until a review is made of its findings sometime in the next month. No member of the San Jose City Council could be reached for comment.

Lorraine Larson, communications director for Silicon Valley Council on Aging, said she feels the plan is moving forward at a reasonable pace, given the complexity of the issue.

"Santa Clara County is a very large area with a very large number of senior citizens," Larson said. "The age-wave issue is quite complex, and when you get several large organizations together to try and solve it, it can be slow going."

Larson said the plan addresses the lack of a cohesive system for the support of the elderly in Silicon Valley, but that the magnitude requires that the plan be carried out carefully to avoid mistakes and oversights.

"There are a tremendous number of services and organizations that have to be taken into account," Larson said. "Right now we have a problem of fragmentation of services and overlapping, and that is part of what is being addressed by the plan. It's going to take some time."

Larson said because the interviews conducted by the grand jury in its investigation of this matter were done a year ago, the resulting report may not be entirely accurate.

"It's important to understand that in the time since they did those interviews, things have further progressed," Larson said.

Larson said the plan is important for the future support of senior citizens, a group that is expected to reach 428,000 individuals by 2020, almost doubling the current population of approximately 220,000.

According to the grand jury report, this growth is likely to have a significant impact on senior services.

"I think the plan makes it clear what a big job there is to do," Larson said. "What we have to figure out now is how do we all pull together to get it done, and I think we are well on our way to doing that."

Among those goals achieved in the plan were convening the team of partner organizations, establishing a "211" telephone hotline of resources for older adults, including caregiver support information on the hotline, and establishing a website.

The city of San Jose has implemented a non-English-language speaking information campaign and added four vans for use by senior centers and implemented caregiver training and information centers at senior centers. In addition, San Jose has implemented six new goals for its own citizens, independent of the leadership group.