Interviewing Lillian Glickman proves an enjoyable experience indeed. Gracious in manner, warmly personal, and well-organized in her thinking, the Secretary of Elder Affairs for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts knows how to put a questioner at ease and make his task a pleasure.
Now marking her second year in the job, Secretary Glickman feels proud about her accomplishments as chief of the Executive Office of Elder Affairs (EOEA). And, to judge from a follow-up discussion of her record that this writer had with a veteran critic of her agency in the past, the Secretary’s pride is amply justified.
She counts half a dozen new or expanded services that are proving valuable to older citizens around the state. Among them, the supportive housing program stirs her special enthusiasm. For a relatively modest $75,000 average annual cost per building, the EOEA now provides benefits of assisted living to residents of three public housing sites. The agency plans twelve more such sites this year.
Three kinds of benefits are offered:
- twenty-four hour on-site personal care;
- reminders to take medications;
- one group meal each day.
Though the program thus far operates only in public housing, it could be extended to private housing as well.
The second achievement mentioned by the Secretary is increased accessibility to all services. “There are so many people who do not know the elder service network exists – we are invisible to them,” she laments.
But EOEA now has a special telephone number (1 800 AGE-INFO) that serves as an entrance to all the services. It ties into the twenty-seven regional home-care agencies, also known as ASAPs (Aging Services Access Points), that cover every part of the state. All one needs do from now on is dial that single 800 number to reach the right service.
EOEA’s web site (http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=eldershomepage&L=1&L0=Home&sid=Eelders) also merits mention. As a user myself, I complimented the secretary for its excellence. The links it provides to other agencies in Massachusetts and around the country I have found especially valuable.
The fourth arrow in the Secretary’s quiver of accomplishments is expansion of the state’s pharmacy program for elders. She mentions specifically the advertising campaign that has helped increase enrollees to some forty-eight thousand elders.
The community care ombudsman program also wins praise from Lillian Glickman. She sees it as an important resource for elders living in their own homes. If they find services inadequate or flawed, they now have a way to register complaints.
Finally, she cites the strengthening of the state’s home care services. One of the most pressing problems currently, she explains, is the difficulty of finding workers. In response, the Secretary has begun an experimental program whereby eligible elders themselves or their family members can hire a home care worker directly and then get reimbursed for the expense.
Toward the end of my session with the Secretary I suggested a new program. Her sympathetic response, as you might imagine, pleased me. I would name this program “Friends of the Patient” and find people who would accompany elders on visits to doctors or hospitals to serve as their personal advocate. Most of us feel vulnerable at such times and badly need the support of another person.
For a second opinion about Secretary Glickman’s work, I spoke with a home care agency director deeply involved in elder services. Because of his negative views about some previous administrations, he describes himself as “pleasantly surprised” at what the current secretary has done. He also claims that this opinion is widely shared by his fellow home care agency directors who have regular dealings with EOEA.
In his eyes, Lillian Glickman has shown herself “very accessible,” making a prac-tice of answering her own phone. At the beginning of her secretaryship, she was “very cautious,” but she has grown in confidence in the job and now does not hesitate to make needed decisions.
Another source of excellence is mentioned by my friend: “There’s a real flexibility that there hasn’t been for a long time.” He details instances in which EOEA has responded quickly and decisively to situations in which his own agency needed state approval.
My friend attributes much of the Secretary’s success to her wisdom in hiring people who are skilled and reliable. If she feels political pressures in hiring, her appointments do not reflect them.
About individual programs, the friendly critic has some minor criticisms. In the pharmacy program, for instance, co-payments and deductibles are still too high. The community care ombudsman program is just getting started and thus too new for praise. And the 800 telephone number takes callers through a menu of numbered choices. “This is a turn-off for many people,” says my friend.
About my suggestion for a “Friend of the Patient” program, my friend says, “We don’t have that kind of advocacy; I think it’s a great idea.” If only for agreeing with me, he shows himself a person of sound judgment.
Richard Griffin