Elderly Service Consolidation Appears Imminent

City politicians, elderly service administrators and seniors are coming together in an effort to block a state-level reorganization that would consolidate the Commonwealth's 27 Elder Services branches into 20 offices.

Opponents say that the proposed consolidation, which names the Somerville-Cambridge office as a possible target of elimination, would significantly limit the office's outreach abilities.

"It's a very short-sighted way to try to save a few bucks," said Kathie L. Filsinger, executive director of Cambridge's Council on Aging. "Access for seniors, in our opinion, would be very much diminished. The bureaucracy would be just enormous in terms of trying to get services."

The move would endanger, among other projects, the local Home Care outreach network--a private program that provides in-house services such as meal preparation to more than 1600 elders. The project is targeted at low-income and house-bound senior citizens who would miss out on the care if it were not brought to their doors.

The City Council unanimously passed an order at its meeting Monday night requesting the city's law department to investigate the possibility of preventing the consolidation. The order states that "anounced plans to consolidate [Somerville-Cambridge Elder Services (SCES)] with Boston pose a direct threat to SCES, their clients and ultimately our city."

Public Hearing

A public hearing last Wednesday drew more than 100 elders to City Hall to present testimony before the city's committee on elder affairs.

Councillor Sheila E. Russell, chair of the elder affairs committee, emphasized the importance of making state officials aware of the effects of government actions on individuals. "They just go slashing away, not realizing whose lives they're hurting," Russell said in an interview Monday.

According to John F. O'Neill, an administrator with Somerville-Cambridge Elder Services, the state's Executive Office to Elder Affairs proposed the consolidation as a cost-cutting measure. He said the consolidation, designed to save $2 million, would take effect on July 1, the beginning of the next fiscal year.

No Consultation

The proposal, part of the state's recovery plan for the 1991 and 1992 fiscal years, was planned without consultation with local members of the "aging network," according to O'Neill. "It could conceivably be that the people who drafted it didn't even understand the system," he said.

The consolidation would condense the three Elder Services Home Care programs in Boston, the South Shore program and the Cambridge-Somerville program into one office, which would probably be located in Boston. According to O'Neill, those five agencies are among the largest in the state, accounting for 25 percent of the Elder Affairs budget.

1979 Client Level

O'Neill added that the proposed cut comes after "two of the biggest years of cutbacks in this institution's history." He said that because of budget restraints, he has seen the Somerville-Cambridge Elder Services clientele shrink from 45,000 at the end of 1988 to little more than 33,000 today.

"We're talking about our client level being what it was in 1979," O'Neill said.

However, according to O'Neill, the only action available to municipal politicians and officials who want to block the consolidation is to lobby state lawmakers, who control the purse strings of the Executive Office of Elder Affairs. "All we can do is put pressure," he said.