Commissioner Gets an Early Start in the Aging Department

May 4, 2012 - PRLog -- Albany, NY -- Judy Coyne’s bio talks about her early experience volunteering in a nursing home in Watertown, NY, as the influence on her career. But the Albany County Department of Aging Commissioner really got her first taste of the aging community earlier than that – living in the same town as her grandmothers.

“They were always around. That’s just the way it was,” said Coyne, who was named Commissioner of the Albany County Department for Aging by the Albany County Executive in 2011 after serving as Deputy Commissioner for three years.

“She’s part of a new wave of directors/commissioners named since Gov. Cuomo took office January 11, 2011,” said Laura Cameron, Executive Director of the NYS Association of Area Agencies on Aging, an umbrella organization for New York’s local offices for the aging and aging network organizations. “Some the result of retirements; others new appointments.”

Ask Coyne which of the aging office programs are in high demand in Albany and she replies: “You can’t just pick one; all of the programs are in high demand.”

Home delivered meals and Expanded In Home Services for the Elderly Program (EISEP), Caregiver Programs, transportation are high on the list. The EISEP program is designed to provide non-medical services – personal care, housekeeping and case management services – to those 60 and over so they may remain independent in their own homes as long as is safely possible. Community-based, nonmedical programs that support older New Yorkers in their homes have proven to delay the need for a nursing home and therefore Medicaid.

The challenges for the office for aging are the usual in 2012: minimal staff, budget battles, expanding number of seniors that need services, but the rewards are tangible, according to Coyne. Home delivered meals and EISEP helped a family of four female siblings share a home, the youngest in her early ‘80s, preventing premature nursing home placement.

Not that there’s anything wrong with nursing homes, said Coyne, who credits the House of Good Samaritan with giving her independence. That was her first taste of the world outside her cocoon growing up, and she calls the experience “profound.” She was assigned to a unit and those residents looked forward to her arrival.

It set the stage the chapters that followed: nursing school, founder and Executive Director of the STARS Intergen Coroporation, Albany Medical Center trauma nurse. Her STARS experience, which brings seniors together with school children, prompted her to take a position in the Teresian House Nursing Home in Albany, NY, a nursing care facility with a five-star rating before moving to the Department of Aging.

She founded the STARS Intergen Corp. as a nonprofit, community-based project that’s been duplicated in schools in the Capital Region. Through the program teachers go into elementary classrooms; professionals from the local senior living center in turn mentor teenaged students.

Coyne’s office is on Washington Avenue Extension in Albany. The Albany County Department for Aging subcontracts out most of their services with 51 providers and 21 congregate meal sites. As with other counties, the senior population showed growth in the 2010 census, 14 percent growth for Albany County. They serve more than 13,000 seniors a year in urban, suburban and rural areas.

For more information, contact the NYS Association of Area Agencies on Aging at us at (518) 366-6148.

About NYSAAAA

The New York State Association of Area Agencies on Aging represents the state’s local offices for the aging established under the federal Older Americans Act to respond to the needs of Americans age 60 and over. The Association provides professional development and education that includes the annual Aging Concerns Unite Us (ACUU) conference, webinars, regional caregiver forums and a fall Leadership Institute. The Association works to strengthen and expand long term services and supports to individuals so they may age in place in the community.  A core philosophy is to work in collaboration with other agencies, which is accomplished through the Aging Alliance, a coalition of organizations representing Older New Yorkers. Looking to the future, the Board of Directors has approved a new name, the Association on Aging in New York, to create a more cohesive and inclusive network to address the diverse needs of an aging population, as well as individuals of all ages needing long term services and supports. For more information, go to http://www.nysaaaa.org The new web site will soon be operational at www.agingny.org