Page 23 - Delaware Medical Journal - September/October 2018

PUBLIC HEALTH
on an injured foot before leaving the house for physical therapy. A friendly “check-in” visit is also an opportunity
to scan a member’s refrigerator, to remind a member of upcoming medical appointments, to caution against scams preying on the elderly, even to change the batteries in a cantankerous TV remote control.
In such cases, deeply vested volunteers — many of whom anticipate being Village members themselves someday, if they
are not already — regard themselves
as “extended family” and are typically willing to go well beyond what the
task requires. That is a commitment
that begins with the Village’s Board of Directors, who themselves are volunteers. When member Elaine Muncy needed
a new mailbox recently, volunteer and board member Steve Hanzel showed up to replace the box across the street from her home. While working, he noticed that the post that held the mailbox had begun to rot. With another volunteer, Frank Powell, he soon returned to replace the post as well — while Muncy supervised from her porch rocking chair. “They did a wonderful job,” she says, but “they had quite a time getting it out of the ground.”1
These are bonds that go far beyond providing services, notes Arlene Matzkin, a longtime volunteer. Yes, if members who live alone are physically incapacitated, “they are totally dependent for every doctor visit and every shopping trip.” But drives and visits are also
“an important part of their week,” she says, “and I look forward to it, too. As volunteers, we get attached to members.”
Matzkin attributes this level of commitment to three characteristics distinctive to successful long-term volunteer organizations. First, she says, is the simple issue of personal chemistry. From its founding, the Village has taken pains to pair
volunteers and members. “All the drivers have their favorites,” she concedes. “It’s a personality matchup, there’s no doubt about that.” Second, volunteers are asked exactly what they’d like to do. Matzkin herself, in of appraising artwork for the Village’s biggest annual fundraiser, the Attic Treasures sale of “gently used” goods. Attic Treasures is directed by board member Steve Hanzel when he’s not busy repairing mailboxes.
Ultimately, though, Matzkin points to a theme that surfaces in familiar taglines such as “Get to know us before you need us.” Many volunteers, she says, “are not much younger than the members they’re helping; sometimes they’re older.” They just happen to be in better health or have greater resources.
“We all have a sense of our own mortality, right?” she says. “We’re looking ahead. It’s a very personal commitment.”5
VOLUNTEERISM AND HEALTH CARE COSTS
In a well-known 2017 study by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Delaware was found to have the third- highest per-capita spending on health care among the states, 27 percent higher than the national average.6 Within months,
two more studies found that despite the

just 22nd in health system performance — falling four places in a year — and 30th in general health.7,8 The current path of spending more and getting less from our health care system is, in the words
of Delaware Health and Social Services Secretary Dr. Kara Odom Walker, “simply unsustainable.” At this rate of growth, total health care spending in Delaware will climb 126% in 11 years, from $9.5 billion in 2014 to $21.5 billion in 2025.9
Meanwhile, as resources are stretched and reallocated, seniors are left increasingly vulnerable by their sheer numbers. The number of Delawareans 75 and older, those most in need of health services, is expected to increase 75.8% between 2015 and 2030,10 the number of Sussex County residents 75 and older 91.6%.11 It does not require a calculator to see that sustained, nominal cost, can make a dramatic difference in the drain on resources, especially in Sussex.
Local volunteer programs have long been a crucial element of the larger civic effort to assist seniors, but historically they have often been limited in one
way or another: specialization (Meals
on Wheels), seasonality (church-based holiday programs), and short-term goals (charitable fundraisers). In contrast — though it may, and in the Village’s case does, work collaboratively with many such groups — an organization such
as the Village focuses on versatility, continuity, and scope. The Village committed about 10,000 hours to
senior care and transportation in 2017,
a number that has grown substantially each year since operations began in November 2013.
“Smart growth” has become code for controlled development in Sussex County, but it just as accurately captures the key
to effective volunteerism. At the end of its the Village had about 40 volunteers and 60 members; in less than four years, those numbers have more than tripled, requiring availability (and willingness) must be matched closely to client members’ needs, locations, and destinations. In short, an effective volunteer effort is among many other things a geometry problem — one that requires a substantial and up-to-date database, as well as those with the skill set to graph solutions.
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