Tuesday, May 17 2011 3:40PM
Counseling for elder and disabled patients in rural Utah has been provided with money from the ADRC.
Federal grant money has helped rural Utah's aging and disability resource centers pay for counseling sessions regarding extended medical care for serious illnesses, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.
The newspaper states $700,000 was channeled through the University of Utah's Center on Aging, which has helped elderly patients and their families with issues such as how to handle post-hospital care in areas with few medical resources. "Optional planners" were hired by some centers to help with this counseling, the paper says.
While this money has aided a handful of resource centers in rural communities in Utah, Maureen Henry, executive director of the Utah Commission on Aging, told the paper more funding is needed to continue the counseling sessions.
The Aging and Disability Resource Center (ADRC) grant was awarded to the state in fall 2009 and runs out in September 2012. Nationwide, more than $11 million in rural community grant money from the ADRC was given out in 2009.