Adult Protective Services
APS Contingency Contract Partners
Big Sky Senior Services
Senior Helping Hands is a state-licensed home health agency and primarily serves isolated, indigent seniors in their homes. Our clients have lost some of their physical and/or mental abilities due to old age and/or illness. As a result, they are no longer able to perform all tasks daily living requires, and they need help with these tasks in order to be able to remain in their homes.
The services our staff members provide include:
- Homemaking
- Meal preparation
- Transportation
- Shopping
- Home safety checks
- Assistance with personal care and hygiene
- Medication management
- Socialization
- Respite care
- Nursing care
- Health monitoring
- Education about and assistance with Disaster planning
We provide these services free of charge or on a sliding fee scale basis, depending on the client’s disposable income.
Prevention of Elder Abuse serves vulnerable elders and developmentally disabled adults. Services include:
- Community education about elder abuse, neglect and exploitation.
- Gatekeeper training so people will watch out for signs that not all is well with a vulnerable adult.
- Case management services for at-risk adults.
- Information and Assistance services.
- A series of eight free educational in-services for caregivers employed at nursing homes, personal care homes, assisted living facilities, and home health agencies, as well as family caregivers, to assure that they will have the knowledge needed to provide the best possible care to the elders in their charge.
- Education of employees of financial institutions to teach them how to recognize the signs of exploitation, and how to report their suspicions.
Representative Payee helps seniors and developmentally disabled adults, who cannot manage their own finances. We pay their bills, assuring that they will not lose utility services, or even their homes. We negotiate with creditors to reduce monthly payments and interest rates. We protect our payee clients from fraud, predatory lenders and exploitation.
Friends Volunteer Program provides companionship and safety to isolated, homebound elders. The seniors served by this program are not necessarily poor, but they all are lonely and prone to depression due to their isolation.
Visiting volunteers get together with their senior once a week, to play games, enjoy a chat, and go out for a meal or shopping. They are our eyes and ears in the senior’s home, reporting any concerns or unmet needs, so we can then follow up to assure the elder is comfortable and safe, and not suffering from neglect.
Our phone friends call their assigned senior on a daily basis to provide a friendly voice and conversation. They also perform safety checks. If an elder does not answer his or her phone, the volunteer will call the office with a report. We then start procedures to locate the senior to assure that’s/he is in good health and safe. On several occasions, we called the police to do a safety check to assure nothing happened to the senior.
Big Sky Senior Services’ Partnership with Adult Protective Services.
BSSS and APS work closely together to assure that previously victimized adults and/or adults at risk are protected through regular contact, case management and, where needed, representative payee services.
Once APS closes a case file, the supervisor may refer the client on to our Prevention of Elder Abuse Program for further involvement, to assure her/his safety.
Laurie Peterson-Yamamoto is also very involved in BSSS’ work of educating the community regarding abuse, neglect and exploitation of vulnerable adults.
Our Social Workers staff weekly meetings with the local APS office.
Serves APS Region 3 Counties of Big Horn, Carbon, Fergus, Golden Valley, Judith Basin, Musselshell, Petroleum, Stillwater, Sweetgrass, Wheatland, Yellowstone
Contact Information
Big Sky Senior Services
3310 2nd Ave North
Billings, MT 59101
(406) 259-3111
www.bigskyseniorservices.org
