Online Resource a Boon to Caregivers

By Sue Lindsey

When her mother needed advanced care for Alzheimer’s disease, Sandy Walton was able to evaluate the many housing options by turning to SeniorNavigator, an online database listing thousands of services for aging Virginians.

“It’s so overwhelming sometimes when you’re trying to make decisions,” said Walton, 59, of Chesterfield. She is one of five siblings caring for their 81-year-old mother, who is in a long-term care facility in the Richmond area.

The resource center, at seniornavigator.org, was launched in 2001 specifically to help older adults and their caregivers find information on issues such as housing, health care, insurance and transportation.

Relying on public and private funds, it’s one of two sites under the umbrella of the nonprofit VirginiaNavigator ( virginianavigator.org), said John Hager, of Richmond, the board’s chairman and a former Republican lieutenant governor.

The database serves an important role, said Richard Lindsay, a retired geriatrician and board member: “One of the biggest problems you face as a caregiver is this big maze of services out there. It gives you a good grasp of the services available.”

The genesis of SeniorNavigator was the difficulty that Mark Warner, a business executive at the time, experienced in the late 1990s finding care for his ailing mother. He expressed his frustration during a presentation on aging issues that Lindsay gave to the Virginia Health Care Foundation board, on which Warner served. Warner, a Democrat, went on to become governor in 2002 and was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2008.

“The idea sprang from my own family’s challenges in finding community resources when my mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s,” Warner recalled. “I am especially proud of how it has grown into a vital resource for so many families.”

Related Websites

VirginiaNavigator also operates a website for people with disabilities ( disabilitynavigator.org) and plans to launch one for veterans by early next year.

Because many veterans are seniors or disabled, Hager said, VeteransNavigator seemed to be a logical way to expand the service.
AARP Virginia has helped to publicize the merits of Virginia­Navigator, getting the word out through social media and newsletters, said Amber Nightingale Sultane, associate state director for community outreach.

Five full-time and six part-time employees manage the websites, which have links to more than 26,000 services and some 800 articles on issues of interest to older residents, said Adrienne Johnson, executive director of Virginia­Navigator. The sites had more than 1.5 million visits last year, and users can easily find services close to home.

Questions posed on the sites’ popular “Ask an Expert” feature are answered by one of 70 volunteer professionals, Johnson added.

Virginians don’t have to be computer literate to get help, Johnson said. Staff members at more than 740 community centers, such as libraries and senior centers, have been trained on the websites. People also can call 866-393-0957 toll-free.

“If somebody’s got a problem, they have questions about multiple things,” Hager said. “You have your ZIP code. We can bring it down to their local community.”

SeniorNavigator is a spin-off of another public-private partnership, the Virginia Health Care Foundation, which focuses on the needs of the uninsured and underinsured.

Hager said VirginiaNavigator gets about half of its yearly budget from state and local funds and federal grants. Private money comes from corporations, foundations and individual donations.

There are very few other such projects around the country, Hager said. “We’ve had several states that have come to us to look at our program.”

Sue Lindsey is a writer living in Roanoke.