4 Senior Navigator centers now operating By Amanda Isley • Staff writer
WARM SPRINGS - As of April 23, Bath County has four SeniorNavigator centers, where employees of county organizations have been trained to navigate a Web site designed to provide seniors and caregivers with information on health care and related services.
 | | Seventh-grader Xavier Smothers (front) will play cunning tiger Shere Kahn in the upcoming Millboro Dinner Theater production of "The Jungle Book." Here, he shows off his slick moves. Also pictured are (l-r) back row: Jamie Sprouse, seventh grade, and D.J. Jack, sixth grade. (Recorder photo by Amanda Isley)
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Bath County Parks and Recreation director Mark Nelson, Virginia Cooperative Extension office agent Joyce Ryder, Bath County Library branch librarian Sharon Lindsay and Bath County Senior Center director Jeanne Apgar have all been trained to help people find information on SeniorNavigator.
"I've learned a lot from SeniorNavigator," said Apgar, who has undergone extensive training through teleconferences and Valley Program for Aging Services over the past year.
Apgar was among the majority of center specialists who attended Monday's workshop on SeniorNavigator, facilitated by SeniorNavigator community specialist Janet Kohen, who serves the Shenandoah Valley region. Only one citizen was present who was not associated with a SeniorNavigator center.
"I hoped to have a larger audience tonight," said Kohen, as she proceeded to describe the service and demonstrate how it works. She had set up a computer and used a projector to allow the audience to see what she was doing.
Step by step, she demonstrated how members could use its special features called "extras." Extras include being able to create a personal library with articles found in SeniorNavigator's extensive archives.
With more than 600 articles on a wide range of topics, it makes sense users would want to keep some in an easily accessible area as a reference. The personal library makes that possible, she said.
Users also have access to a needs assessment quiz, which consists of 12 questions. After answering them, the user can submit it over the Internet and receive a customized mini-health plan, or tips as well as links to more information. "Anyone can use the Web site, but only members can access the extras," she explained.
Ask an Expert and E-Quicktips are other "extra" features. Any questions submitted to experts are first communicated to SeniorNavigator operations staff and then relayed to one of more than 65 experts volunteering around the state.
All information is kept confidential and experts have no direct communication with members, she explained. E-Quicktips are friendly pointers e-mailed to only those members who sign up to receive them.
In addition, SeniorNavigator offers information on the Virginia Caregivers Grant, a $500 grant for unpaid caregivers, as well as information on an Alzheimer's caregiver grant and grants for home modifications needed due to aging or certain medical conditions.
SeniorNavigator staff has agreed to consider anyone 50 or older a senior citizen. Over 21,000 service providers are listed on the site and there is no membership charge. To become a member, a person just has to create a user name and password.
There is also a link on the membership sign-up page to create a free Yahoo e-mail account, which is helpful for those who are just getting started with computers and those who would prefer to have a separate e-mail account for SeniorNavigator mail.
"SeniorNavigator is constantly evolving to create what we hope is a more friendly site for people to use," Kohen said.
Despite its user-friendliness, it could still pose a challenge to get seniors to use it since many senior citizens are computer-phobic, she said. That's where community centers come into play.
Apgar agrees seniors normally are not pro-computer and are often intimidated by the thought of using one. "I have three seniors here who use the computer, and by that I also mean, who want to learn how to use the computer - seniors, as a whole, don't want to use the computer at all," she said.
However, seniors at the Bath senior center recognize the importance of computer technology. "Every one of them will tell you about something I've done for them on the computer and that it was helpful," she said. "The seniors who come here are more and more aware of the importance of computers."
Apgar spends time researching topics on the computer for the seniors, which is one way to get over the computer hurtle, and says one of her seniors is adept with the computer and can help others.
Bath's senior center recently received a $1,000 grant from SeniorNavigator in partnership with Medicare. The grant will pay for a new computer and a pilot program where the senior center tracks the number of people asking questions and looking for information on Medicare. Apgar plans to hire the computer whiz senior to log information, she said.
The lone attendee of Monday night's workshop was Millboro Ruritan Club treasurer Vivian Manis. She attended for personal reasons, having fought cancer for the past year, she said.
She wished more people had come, but said most Millboro residents, especially the elderly, don't like to come over the mountain at night. She commended the county for creating a partnership with SeniorNavigator. "I think it's wonderful they have something like this," she said.
Apgar said the big question the county and health officials are asking is how best to promote SeniorNavigator in Bath County. "It's going to be word of mouth - that's really going to be the way it happens around here."
Kohen said she thought churches in the community could be an important key to distributing information to those who would most benefit from it.
"A lot of people don't know the value of what we're advertising. The trick for us will be to educate some influential people in Bath County - if we can interest, intrigue, educate the faith leaders, we're going to have a chance to get information to the general public," she said.
For more information on SeniorNavigator, call Jeanne Apgar at (540) 839-5604, Joyce Ryder at 839-7261, Sharon Lindsay at 839-7286, or Mark Nelson at 839-7211.
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