Hands to Help Seniors

There's an important event for homeless veterans coming to Monterey called Stand Down, and at least nine judges from six different counties will be among the dozens of volunteers helping out at a three-day tent city at the Ford Ord motor pool (8^th Avenue and Lloyd Way in Seaside).  The event will offer free medical, legal, housing, education, life skills and other services to homeless veterans.  It's put on every other year by the Veterans Transition Center and this year judges will hold court sessions on the spot to help veterans resolve outstanding cases.  In many instances, they will be able to assign the veteran community service on the spot.  Once that's completed, the judge can dismiss the case and the Monterey College of Law can assist them in getting their record cleared.  What a great community service to help our homeless veterans.

Comments (0)     

View From A Nonprofit Serving Senior Citizens In Carmel, Carmel Valley, Gonzalez, Greenfield, King City, Marina, Monterey, Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach, Salinas, Seaside And Soledad California

President Barack Obama's health care reform law has millions of Americans getting access to Medicaid (called Medi-Cal in California).   However, California Governor Jerry Brown's new budget has many asking the question, how will these new Medi-Cal recipients get access to care?  Although Governor Brown did fund the additional money to add the new recipients, he also left in place a 10% cut to most doctors, dentist and other health care professionals who take the insurance.  This will almost surely cause more doctors to stop taking the insurance which already has extremely low reimbursement rates.  Finding a doctor on the Monterey Peninsula who takes Medicare is extremely difficult.  Finding one that takes new Medi-Cal recipients is next to impossible.  If we are serious about giving the poor access to health care, there need to be more doctors willing to take the government insurance, not less.

Please note that this blog reflects my personal opinion and may or may not reflect the opinion of Hands to Help Seniors and the individual members comprising the Board of Governors.

Comments (0)     

View From A Nonprofit Serving Senior Citizens In Carmel, Carmel Valley, Gonzalez, Greenfield, King City, Marina, Monterey, Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach, Salinas, Seaside And Soledad California

The myriad problems at the Veterans Administration don't appear to be getting any better.  The Wall Street Journal reported that the Veterans Administration has begun ousting brain-damaged veterans from special therapeutic nursing homes where they have been shuffled off to state veterans homes, nursing homes or sent to live with family members.  They have not been told whether they will be eligible for rehab because funding for the rehabilitation program expires on October 6.  I hope Congress renews funding for the five-year test program which from all accounts appears to be a success.  "It's shortsighted to let it expire, leaving veterans in the cold with no similar options," Senator Cory Booker (Democrat, New Jersey), told the Wall Street Journal.  I agree, it's sad that this issue has to go down to the wire with veterans being removed from what they have come to call home.

Please note that this blog reflects my personal opinion and may or may not reflect the opinion of Hands to Help Seniors and the individual members comprising the Board of Governors

Comments (0)     

View From A Nonprofit Serving Senior Citizens In Carmel, Carmel Valley, Gonzalez, Greenfield, King City, Marina, Monterey, Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach, Salinas, Seaside And Soledad California

In the ongoing saga at the Veterans Administration, the Wall Street Journal reported today that an investigation by the Obama Administration found that there is a "Corrosive Culture" at the VA.  This should come as no surprise to those which have been reading the news.  Acting Secretary of Veterans Affairs Sloan Gibson told Barack Obama that significant further action is needed to fix the VA.  The biggest admission in the report was that the VA's goals of having someone seen within 14 days was, "arbitrary, ill-defined and misunderstood."   This is such a huge organization so it's going to be hard to fix but hopefully the new management team is up to the challenge.

http://online.wsj.com/articles/white-house-review-of-va-finds-corrosive-culture-poor-management-1403906418

http://www.h2hs.org/news-and-media.html

Please note that this blog reflects my personal opinion and may or may not reflect the opinion of Hands to Help Seniors and the individual members comprising the Board of Governors

Comments (0)     

View From A Nonprofit Serving Senior Citizens In Carmel, Carmel Valley, Gonzalez, Greenfield, King City, Marina, Monterey, Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach, Salinas, Seaside And Soledad California

Raising funds for a non-profit is extremely difficult despite the improving economy.  We have switched our annual fundraiser from Bernardus Lodge to Carmel Valley Ranch this year.  We hope to see you on August 23 where we will begin our silent auction at 5:00 p.m. which will be accompanied by wine and light hors d'oeuvres.  We will have a 3-course dinner starting at 6:30 which I can tell you from personal experience will be delicious.  There are now over 1,200 non-profits in Monterey County which bring $2.1 billion into to the local economy each year.  Supporting those whose mission you believe in is extremely important, and we hope that you are on our favorites list.  Our services are provided to senior citizens primarily by a wide group of volunteers, and we are also seeking your help on this front.  If you would like to volunteer, please click here for more information and give us a call at 204-0402 or fill out this form if you are interested in helping.  You can email the form to Valeska van Vliet at [email protected].  There are currently over 13,000 volunteers helping non-profits in Monterey County, giving more than 500K hours of their year of free time to these charities.  We hope you are one of them, and we hope that you choose us to give your valuable time.  About 80% of nonprofits said in a recent survey that the number of people they are serving increased, so the demand is clearly here.  Please help us help low-income senior citizens in Monterey County

Comments (0)