WILMINGTON

By GARY HUFFENBERGER

ghuffenberger@wnewsj.com

Seventy-nine-year-old Hazel Whited of Wilmington is an example of a senior with limiting disabilities but who still can be cared for at home.

Seniors with disabilities like Whited are the people who utilize the government Passport program which enables them to stay at home when otherwise they probably would have to go to a nursing home, losing their independence and costing the taxpayer an estimated four times as much as the home care provided through Passport.

Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, facing a $3.2 billion budget deficit, has proposed a cut to Passport.

“Leave us senior citizens in our homes as long as we can stay independent. In a nursing home, you get up when they want you to get up. You eat what they want you to eat. They tell you to go to bed,” Whited said Wednesday as she reclined in a lift chair in her apartment living room.

She has resided in the apartment seven years. The landlord, she said, is wonderful.

Indoors beside the front window is a host of robust African violets, and everywhere you turn, owls. Her collection includes a tabletop display of snowy owls. She said an owl figurine was the first gift her late husband bought for her.

For three hours on Mondays through Fridays, a home health aide stops in and assists Whited with some basic household chores and health needs.

Without home health aide Shelly Brown’s help, it would be hard to remain at the apartment, said Whited. The Passport program funds the aide.

Whited said her Wilmington physician, Dr. Anita Wantz, approves of her staying at her own place.

She said Wantz has told her she has “too much spunk and too much gumption” to go into a nursing home.

“As long as I take my meds and have (home health aide) help, the doctor said I’m not ready for a nursing home,” said Whited.

In 2008, Passport served 121 Clinton County seniors — a 15 percent increase over 2007, according to the Council on Aging of Southwestern Ohio which administers Passport for residents of Butler, Clermont, Clinton, Hamilton and Warren counties.

“That’s 121 people who were able to stay in their homes and keep their dignity, privacy and connection to all they know and love,” said Laurie Petrie, the council’s communications director.

If each of the 121 Clinton County seniors stayed on Passport for a year at an average cost of $13,200, it would cost taxpayers $1.6 million, said Petrie. But if those 121 people had gone into nursing homes and been there for a year at an average per-person cost of $57,600, their care would have cost taxpayers $7 million, she added.

Passport is paid for by state Medicaid funds, as is the around-the-clock care in a nursing home, according to the council on aging.

Whited has a medical condition called lymphedema, which produces severe swelling in her feet. She hasn’t been able to wear women’s shoes for four years because of the condition in which water and blood gather in her feet. Whited’s home health aide can treat her in the home using pumps for drainage.

“I don’t walk like everyone else does, but I can walk. I’ll catch up with you,” said Whited.

She also has lung problems, which she ascribes to being a baker, breathing in gluten and flour. As a result, she is on oxygen.

Nonetheless, Whited is still capable of fixing her own meals.

“I like to cook. I still do my own cooking,” she said.

Her daughter comes and takes her to Kroger where she gets on a mobility scooter and does her own shopping.

Whited said she didn’t want to be overly critical, but “at a nursing home, the eggs come to you cold.”

“Senior citizens who are able to walk and stay in their own home are not ready for a closet — that’s what I call a nursing home,” said Whited, who turns 80 next month.

“As long as we can have help come into our home and run the sweeper and dust and do our washing, don’t take our life away from us,” she added.