Budget cuts slash senior services just when aging baby boomers need them. Monterey County Weekly
01.09.11
For Jo Anne Curtis, 61, of Salinas, the Alliance on Aging’s group peer counseling is what’s keeping her aging parents alive and independent. Her 88-year-old father is blind, hard of hearing and suffering from arthritis and degenerative disease in his spinal discs. But Curtis says her dad’s toughest obstacle is the loss of social interaction; he has always surrounded himself with people.
“He looks forward to these meetings because he has absolutely no outside contact anymore,” Curtis says. “If he didn’t have that weekly meeting, it would decrease his quality of life.” Curtis herself volunteers as a one-on-one peer counselor with the Alliance, a Monterey-based nonprofit.
Now, Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed reallocating the funds that pay for the peer counseling program, which could mean its complete elimination. In a budget environment that’s spared no one, it’s just one of many programs on the chopping block. “It’s really bad now, and it could get worse,” says Assemblyman Bill Monning (D-Carmel).
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