Senior Citizens Home Assistance Service

Hey everybody,

After we left Birth to Three, we visited with a few of the folks from the Senior Citizens Home Assistance Service (SCHAS, for short). SCHAS is a service that does a lot for Blount County's elderly people – from simple cleaning to giving them baths in their home. They take care of those older folks who get along pretty well on their own, but they just can’t quite do everything like they used to. So SCHAS comes in and fills in those gaps to keep them from having to go to a nursing home.

We got to spend some time with Ms. Beasley, and SCHAS comes in every couple of weeks and helps her with her cleaning. I just loved getting to meet her. She’s a sweetheart, and rumor has it she makes some mean biscuits and gravy. They’re the talk of her floor.

She said it best – we really need to take care of children and our elderly. She said if it weren’t for the services SCHAS provides her, she’d probably have to live in a nursing home because she wouldn’t be able to keep up with her apartment. Then she’d get evicted.

Ya’ know, it’s gotta’ be hard for someone to lose their independence and self-sufficiency, and there’s a lot of people who could live on their own with a little help. Judy from SCHAS was talking about some of the self-neglect and elder abuse she sees, and it’s just sad and wrong.

Seriously, I’m Old Testament on this one. We ought to bring the hanging tree back on the courthouse lawn and hang the folks that hurt our elderly and our children because there’s just no excuse whatsoever for that. Some of the things Judy’s seen were awful, but she’s trying to make a difference.

We should help our elderly live on their own for as long as they can, and if they need a little help here and there, that’s something that Senior Citizens Assistance can provide.

You all have a good weekend, and thanks for reading. My next blog will be about our trip to Douglas Cooperative. Now THAT was really uplifting.

Blog You Later,
Dave Bennett