Published: March 28, 2008 04:43 pm      

Senior care — Commission on Aging faces reorganization

The decision by the Mercer County Commission on Aging to accept a proposed reorganization of its administration through the West Virginia Bureau of Senior Services is a move that should help address recent concerns raised by area senior citizens.

Commissioner Sandra K. Vanin said Tuesday her bureau had received notification that the commission on aging had accepted a proposed reorganization of its administration.

Vanin said on March 20 that the bureau and the Appalachian Area Agency on Aging had been reviewing operations at the Mercer County Commission on Aging. The action was prompted in part by multiple letters, e-mails and phone calls from concerned seniors and their family members, and an exodus of the commission on aging’s key staff, Vanin said.

A statement from the state agency said the senior citizens of Mercer County through e-mails and phone calls identified their concerns over the day-to-day operations of the center. Vanin said the e-mails and phone calls from the senior citizens served as the “catalyst” for the proposed reorganization by the bureau and the Appalachian Area Agency on Aging.

Bill Lytton, a retired deputy commissioner of the bureau of senior services, has agreed to serve as the interim director for the local commission on aging offices, Vanin said.

“Mr. Lytton understands the aging network, the operations of federal and state programs for seniors and has a working relationship with the bureau of senior services, the area agency, and other aging organizations,” Vanin said in the news release. “I believe Mr. Lytton’s knowledge will do much to return the Commission on Aging to a center where all seniors are welcome, services are provided and financial records are well maintained.”

We hope that the state intervention can address the concerns raised by area senior citizens. We believe the reorganization of the local Commission on Aging by the state bureau is a step in the right direction.

We urge the state to take corrective steps — if necessary — to ensure that the Mercer County Commission on Aging is in fact a center where all seniors are welcomed and properly served. We wouldn’t expect anything less from our local Commission on Aging office.