With a wait list for senior transportation that was twice as long as the number of people being served, Fulton County was crushed under the weight of residents' needs.
It doesn’t have the money for new services. Instead, it’s looking to direct users elsewhere — and to cull the list.
Wednesday, commissioners agreed to raise the age of residents who can request rides to doctors or grocery stores to 60, from 55. They also signed off on a new system to screen potential riders, in the hopes that only the neediest ones will rely on county services.
“There are better ways they can be served,” Fulton County Manager Dick Anderson said.
The wait list, which had reached more than 1,800 people, has been frozen for two years, said Kenn Vanhoose, division manager in the Fulton County Office of Aging. The county provided rides to 944 users in the first four months of 2017.
County employees have been calling people on the wait list to see if they still need Fulton’s services. By the time the workers make it through, they expect to have pared the list down to about 625 people.
The remaining 1,200 that are being taken off the list are under 60 years old and will no longer be eligible for service, say they no longer need the rides, or could not be contacted. A handful are already receiving county transportation services.
Those who remain on the wait list still will not have access to county rides.
“There’s always going to be more need than we have money for,” Commissioner Liz Hausmann said.
Fulton already spends nearly $6 million to bring people to senior centers and doctors’ appointments. That’s far more than Gwinnett and Cobb, which each spend just over $1 million each on the service.
The need for senior transportation is a problem that will continue to multiply. In the five-county metro Atlanta area, the population age 65 and up is expected to grow to 937,000 people in 2040, from 371,000 in 2015, according to the Atlanta Regional Commission. Mary Blumberg, the program manager for strategic planning and development for Aging and Health Resources at the Atlanta Regional Commission, said previously that the need for transportation metro-wide far exceeds the supply.
All told, Blumberg said, people on average outlive their ability to drive by seven to 10 years. Most have poor access to public transit.
“We are thinking about how we can expand the options,” said Pamela Roshell, Fulton’s director of aging and youth services.
Voucher programs, volunteer drivers and other solutions are in the works. But for now, the county is focusing on outside partners.
Those who remain on the waiting list and those who call in will be assessed for their level of self-sufficiency, Roshell said. Seniors who are mostly self-sufficient, but who feel uncomfortable driving in certain situations, will be offered access to a defensive driving class, taught how to use public transportation or shown how to use ridesharing apps like Uber or Lyft.
Those who have cognitive issues, aren't able to use an app on a smartphone to hail a ride or can't afford to pay full freight will be considered moderately self-sufficient, Vanhoose said. By the fall, the county expects to start a pilot program that would allow it to split the cost of rides on Lyft and Uber. He also said the county is looking into a service that can book rides on behalf of riders.
And those who most need assistance will be referred to MARTA's paratransit program, to the Veteran's Administration and to Medicaid for help, while they wait for county service. Vanhoose said he hopes that county ride service "becomes the safety net" for riders, instead of the first choice.
Those who already use county services will also have to go through the new screening to make sure they are best matched to services.
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