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4 <br />Alice Gordon noted that there is Che issue of helping the seniors or others and then <br />there is the issue of the impact on the County revenue system and figuring out something that will <br />work. It needs <br />to be seriously researched.. She feels there are various ways of helping seniors age in place or <br />helping other low income citizens and balancing it with the County's revenue stream. <br />Florence Soltys said that the Tax Collector worked with this person to pay her back <br />taxes but there was no way to help her so she came to Senior Care of Orange Cowlty, Inc. and they <br />had enough donations to pay the taxes. Also, this person is ill but has made a commitment that her <br />property will pay back the money to the fund, This is a new way of helping people. <br />Barry .Jacobs said that he talked with Commissioner Ward from Wake County who <br />had a proposal of placing a lien on property and allowing the person to defer taxes while living <br />there and then paying the taxes when the property is sold, Commissioner Ward needs to be <br />contacted to find out how far this proposal went and see what the objectives may have been. Any <br />tax proposal would need to go before the state legislators. They may let Orange County do a pilot <br />program.. <br />Nancy Coston said that Medicaid now takes liens on property. There may be <br />something similar that Orange County can do. Also, Social Services tries to help the disabled as <br />well as seniors and others. <br />Ann Johnson said that there are major changes being proposed in the form of the <br />Protective Services Act. The Department of Social Services has been promoting this change which <br />calls for mandatory training and mentions elder adults as separate from the vulnerable, The <br />proposal drops the word "disabled" and substitutes "vulnerable" and "elder adults" implying that all <br />need protective services. There seems to be no support to consider that this might be erroneous in <br />its interpretation. <br />Nancy Coston said that she is on the task force. Ms. Hudson was the person who <br />suggested they use this definition. Ann .lohnson has received a lot ofcalls from people about this <br />issue and she is not happy about this, She will talk with John Saxton at the Institute of GovernmenC <br />wlio is on the task force.. <br />3. Update Reports from Subcommittees -_ Priorities and Action Plans <br />A. Well-Fit Functional Group -Myra Austin <br />Myra Austin said that the Well-Fit Committee met and took their five top issues and <br />assigned some tasks to those strategies and goals. Their top issue was home-based preventative <br />community services which includes goals like aging in place through new housing development.. <br />One idea is to provide incentives to built senior housing so that people from different backgrounds <br />can live successfully in the same community. Their second goal is community assessment.. This <br />would be a bi-annual community assessment to identify needs and issues of older adults. It was <br />suggested that this project could be done with the help of UNC and other organizations. Another <br />goal would be driver safety. They will look at developing an elder driver education course. They <br />will write a safe driver brochure using programs like AARP and also work with the School of <br />Occupational Therapy, Another strategy within this goal would be to mobilize the faith community <br />in terms of helping with the education of older adults which will also involve the Department of <br />Motor Vehicles. Another strategy within this goal is to develop a drivers screening project. This <br />would utilize volunteers and use the DMV testing policies, The next objective is access to <br />affordable health care. One piece of this is community education which goes back to hiring an <br />additional staff member who would handle information and resource issues and also to manage <br />volunteers. Another part of this particular goal is to work with the I-Iealth Department Co establish <br />mobile clinics to include prevention screening services for mental health, education and basic <br />counseling. Another part of this is to improve access to availability of various treatments and <br />facilities which will accept Medicaid and Medicare. The last goal is to increase budget allocations <br />