Central Alabama Aging Consortium Celebrates 50 Years of Serving Seniors

By Mikala McCurry

For nearly 50 years, the Central Alabama Aging Consortium (CAAC) has been serving Montgomery, Autauga, and Elmore Counties as one of thirteen area agencies on aging in the State of Alabama. Yolanda Evans, Executive Director for CAAC, leads the way in helping the agency provide needed services to seniors and individuals with disabilities in Alabama.

“Our main job is to make sure that clients who are seniors or disabled are able to stay in their homes and live a safe life of dignity and respect,” Yolanda said.

CAAC offers nearly 18 programs at no cost designed to help their clients live normal and functional lives while staying in their homes. Their in-home programs provide essential services, such as in-home meal delivery. They serve nearly 700 individuals in the Tri-County area with in-home services. Through their team of 35 case managers, CAAC utilizes several partnerships to assist seniors and disabled individuals with daily living functions, such as housekeeping, bathing, cooking skills, and transportation to and from appointments.

CAAC also manages 19 senior centers throughout the tri-county area for seniors to connect and engage in fun activities. Since many seniors live alone, the senior centers provide opportunities for social interactions to reduce the social isolation that they may experience.

In addition to their in-home programs and senior centers, CAAC offers several community-based programs to provide seniors with essential health and wellness services. Their prescription program helps seniors who are underinsured or uninsured get expensive medications at low or no cost.

“We all know sometimes people struggle with getting their medications or getting food, and medication is very vital to our seniors, especially when some of them have certain illnesses or diseases, such as diabetes or high blood pressure,” Yolanda said.

Along with their prescription program, CAAC manages a Medicaid/Medicare insurance program known as “SHIP” that connects seniors with an insurance coordinator who will make sure that their insurance needs are being met to the best extent possible.

To help seniors stay active, CAAC also offers fitness classes where seniors can work on range of motion, mobility, and low impact strength and cardio training.

Some of the other community-based programs that CAAC provides are free legal assistance to individuals ages 65 and older and the “Alabama Cares” program for caregivers. The legal assistance program helps seniors with important legal affairs, such as designating a power of attorney or creating and updating wills. The “Alabama Cares” program provides supplemental and financial support to caregivers who are taking care of senior or disabled loved ones.

One of CAAC’s most popular community programs is their “Dementia Friendly Alabama” program. The coordinator of this program travels around the state to businesses, schools and other organizations to ensure they are “dementia friendly.” They also educate students about the disease and what it means for their senior loved ones. The program provides identification cards that family members and caregivers can utilize to notify others that their loved one has dementia.

“Statistics say the number of individuals with dementia will increase by three times the amount over the next 10 to 15 years. This program ensures that people who have been diagnosed with dementia can go to public places and be comfortable enough to carry out the daily functions of their lives,” Yolanda said.

Yolanda encourages people to be proactive in learning about aging resources and to support agencies like CAAC through donations to invest in the services that they, or a loved one, could possibly need in the future.
“When people hear about aging, they always relate it to people who are in their senior moments; to be realistic, we are aging every day that we are living. We could all be one paycheck or accident short of needing these kinds of services. It is important for us to learn about the resources that are available and to be proactive. Know about us before the need is there so you’re not in panic mode,” Yolanda said.

To get connected with these resources, individuals can call CAAC at 334-240-4680 and talk to an intake specialist at their resource center. They will conduct an assessment to determine which services the individual qualifies for. Stay tuned for more information on CAAC’s 50th Anniversary celebration!