A new elder care program in Carbon County is allowing more seniors around Baggs to stay living in their own homes longer. It’s called the Little Snake River Valley Village Program and it’s one of a kind in Wyoming.
Program director Jody Willy says the community had to think creatively when its health clinic closed down two years ago and chose not to offer home health services when it re-opened. She says the village program is a national movement to help seniors age in place. Usually the program charges a monthly fee for in-home care. But the Carbon County program opted to waive their fee since they’re such a small community.
It is all on a donation process, what they can afford. Five dollars a month, maybe one dollar a month, maybe nothing a month.
“They don’t have to be homebound to be part of our program,” says Willy. “And how we get around that is we don’t bill them. It’s all on a donation process, what they can afford. Five dollars a month, maybe one dollar a month, maybe nothing a month.”
Willy says the Little Snake River Valley program is unique because it’s been retrofitted to suit the area’s isolation--the closest town is Craig, Colorado 40 miles away. Willie says, they’ve equips seniors in the valley with buttons they can push in an emergency.
“We have a real unique set up with, I call them dialers but they’re the emergency buttons. I can set it up where they just push it and it’ll go straight to 9-1-1 to our local dispatch, not to someplace in North Carolina. And there’s no monthly fee. I bet I have 15 people with those.”
Willy says the program plans to expand and is looking for land to build an assisted living facility in the valley.
