State Works With Iron County To Improve Its Food, Transportation Services For Elderly

A state agency is working with Iron County after it received complaints that the county’s food and transportation services for seniors aren’t as accessible in certain areas.

Iron County Board Member Vic Ouimette said he and others are working with the state to spread out services provided by the county’s aging unit.

“It is skewed to provide most of the services in the northern Iron County and Hurley area,” Ouimette said.

Pam Vankampen is with the Greater Wisconsin Agency on Aging Resources, which oversees aging units and provides money from the federal government.

“We do hear it across the state,” she said. “We’ll have complaints for example that meals on wheels aren’t provided in all areas of the county — only certain areas.”

Vankampen said they’ve advised the county’s aging unit to form a group to address how and where services are provided.

“What we recommended that they do is to form a local work group with representatives from each of the meal sites and other folks from the county who would be the appropriate people to sit on that committee, so they can discuss where the meal sites should be located (and) the dates of service,” she said.

Vankampen said they’ve asked the unit for an updated services plan, which would include the food and transportation services they provide and where they’re offered.

GWAAR oversees programs under the Older Americans Act and distributes federal funding for those services to those 60 and older.

Vankampen said they’ve also received complaints about seniors coming in from Michigan to access services in Wisconsin. However, she said that since the programs are federally funded, there’s no need for people to be turned away at the state or county line.

“We always strongly encourage (aging units) to be creative and think of ways to partner and work with different agencies, or somehow provide all the services and/or work with their contiguous counties to try to provide services,” she said

Vankampen said limited resources and funding sometimes pose challenges to aging units that provide services.

The Aging Unit of Iron County did not return calls for comment.