St. Tammany News

The St. Tammany Council on Aging, COAST, met Thursday morning to discuss with the public its plans for the next four years.

After Hurricane Katrina, COAST was hit hard with a number of changes and challenges, said Mary Toti, executive director of COAST. More than 16,000 seniors moved to the St. Tammany Parish area after the storm, and with the new influx of seniors in the community, senior centers and organizations have had to deal with these changes. Many programs were affected, such as the Meals on Wheels, where after the storm they had to change over to frozen meals that the seniors can heat up when necessary, said Toti. "We had a problem with the fact that we were losing the human interaction factor, where volunteers are actually handing over a meal to the seniors," said Toti.

"We hope to open more and more centers throughout the community to help accommodate all of the new seniors," said Toti. "We need to open more centers within the seniors own community, we just don't have the accommodations to bus them around all over the parish."

State Rep. A.G. Crowe was on hand to speak to the seniors about what he plans to do to help out the seniors. He announced to the seniors that a piano will be donated to the senior center so that they can have music in the building again.

Crowe said he is upset to hear that this many seniors are still living in a FEMA trailer by themselves.

You can look in 50 different directions and see someone that needs help, and the seniors seem to be the ones that are pushed aside and overlooked, said Crowe. The representative is upset also that Slidell still doesn't have a senior center or even a temporary fix for one since the hurricane came through.

"There are reasons for that, and some are technical and some are just things you have to work around. We know that FEMA is the latest dirty four letter word, but the fact is that they move slower than the pace of government," said Crowe.

According to the 60,000 needs assessment surveys that were sent out throughout the parish, seniors believe that the most important thing to them is transportation for medical appointments, shopping and visiting.

The survey also discovered that seniors want to continue being active on a daily basis. When they go to senior centers in their area, they do not want to go to the centers and just eat lunch. They want to have exercise, dance and walking classes. They would also like to have day trips to museums and historical sites. The seniors would like to be educated on legal assistance, crime issues, scams, frauds and personal safety.

The St. Tammany Council on Aging has helped seniors achieve and maintain independence since 1967. They provide transportation by delivering nutritious meals to the homebound.

Part of making life easier and better for seniors is finding information and making it readily available. Seniors go to COAST and learn about services and other factors that affect the quality of their life. They gather information from local, state and national sources and present it to the seniors in useful and practical terms.

All people who are above the age of 60 and are St. Tammany Parish residents are eligible to receive COAST service.

COAST offers four main services: transportation to assist the senior's independence in the community; nutritional services that provide meals for seniors unable to leave their homes; wellness programs to aid seniors to stay active and to have regular health screenings; and finally a national family caregiver support program that helps millions to provide the primary care for spouses, parents and relatives through services.