Happy Birthday 65!

About the Program

Category: Human Services (Best in Category)

Year: 2010

The Macomb County Department of Senior Services operates for 30,000 seniors every year. During 2009, the Resource Advocates noticed that soon to be retiring seniors were calling the office with the same questions concerning federal and state programs. These questions often concerned the various forms of Medicaid, expectation of what to receive upon retirement, differences between state and federal programs, combination of employment and benefits, prescription options and basic calls for assistance. Many of these questions could not be answered by a single phone call to one government agency. Having to reroute seniors’ calls from one government agency to another frustrated the seniors who were already confused about what programs and services they were eligible for. Additionally, many calls were put into a telephone maze and the seniors needed to leave massages that were often not returned in a timely fashion. This mass amount of phone calls created awareness that a 65th Birthday Seminar addressing senior government retirement options, programs and services was needed. The focus is on government services offered to persons who will be retiring or turning age 65 during the year. Presenters are representatives from the five contact agencies the seniors most often seek advice from when making their retirement decisions: the Macomb County Department of Senior Citizen Services, Social Security, Medicare, Department of Human Service and the Veterans Administration.