Harold and Sharon McNeal not only walked away with a wealth of information from the Aging and Disabilities Resource Network’s Resource Fair, on Thursday, Harold McNeal also won a fall Thanksgiving basket. The resource fair was held at the Hawkins Corner Training and Events Center.
“We’re checking out the insurance,” said Sharon McNeal. “We need to make sure we have the right insurance. We’re looking for prescription insurance at the right price.”
The Crestline couple, which lives in the retirement center of Faith Community, said they planned to make an appointment with someone at the Crawford County Council on Aging to talk about their options for getting prescription coverage through Medicare.
The Ohio Area Agency on Aging District 5 was charged with developing the Aging and Disabilities Resource Network (ARDN), said Julie Sipe, consumer assistance manager for the AoA.
“The goal of the group is to work towards cross training so we understand each other’s agencies and programs better,” she said, “and streamlining. How we get consumers from one agency to the next without them having to tell their story over and over again.”
Sipe said besides having the resource fair for the public it was also a chance for the partner agencies from the nine counties the Area on Aging serves, to come together and learn about the services each partner agency offers.
There was a meet and greet between the agency partners for the first hour and members from the community could walk around to different tables decorated with plenty of information about a variety of subjects. There were also plenty of give-a-ways.
“We’d like to get to a system someday where there’s no wrong door,” Sipe said. “When a consumer calls an agency and it’s not necessarily the agency that provides the program they want, they can seamlessly get them there without the run around of having four or five phone numbers to call.”
There are almost 50 partners in the ARDN, Sipe said. Thirty-five agencies were represented at the resource fair.
Cassie Herschler, social service coordinator for the Crawford County Council on Aging, said the agency belongs to the ARDN.
“We are hoping to be able to coordinate with other agencies, be able to give referrals and give out information about our services,” Herschler said.
Although most of the community members who stopped by the display table were not from Crawford County, Herschler said, the idea of the event was to network and distribute information.
Dan Chandler, director of marketing at Crystal Care Center of Ashland, talked to people about the short and long term care services provided as well as respite care and rehab.
“A lot of the people in this room are doing similar or different things, and so it’s good to know who’s out there and what services people provide,” he said. “There are a lot of people you partner with and sometimes you don’t know about all their services, what they offer or how you can partner with them, as far as out in the field or work with them in other capacities to help us both achieve our goals.”
Chandler said he thinks it’s important for agencies in surrounding counties to work together, especially when serving the same types of people.
“We work with MedCentral and other places in Richland County,” he added. “People that live in Ashland go to the doctor in Mansfield, so we like to develop the relationships with people so they’re familiar with us.”
Sherry Branham, director of external operations for the Richland County Mental Health and Recovery Services Board talked to community members and gave out information about mental health services, alcohol and substance abuse.
The board funds a variety of agencies from federal, state and local tax levies, she said.
For more information visit, www.aaa5ohio.org and look for ARDN.
