LOCKPORT — BY APRIL AMADON

amadona@gnnewspaper.com

Barbara Dobrasz did not know where to turn.

The Lewiston resident — a mother of four, with nine grandchildren — has been worrying about her parents a lot lately, especially her 93-year-old father, who has suffered two strokes and recently broke two ribs in a fall.

Getting him to and from doctor’s appointments is often a time-consuming and difficult task, she said.

“He walks with a walker, and he’s very weak,” she said. “Getting him in and out of a car is very difficult.”

Dobrasz decided to call the Niagara County Office for the Aging, to see what services were out there. With one phone call, she ended up finding a wealth of information.

Through the NY Connects Niagara County program, housed with the Office for the Aging in Lockport, Dobrasz was put in contact with a transportation service that charges only $7 each way to take her father to his appointments.

NY Connects Long Term Care Coordinator Suzette Rutherford said she talks with people like Dobrasz every day.

The program began in 2005, when the state offered a grant to each county in the state to create a NY Connects program to provide information and assistance to people about long-term care services.

The program is meant for all people ages 60 and over, as well as the physically disabled of any age.

Niagara County’s program also provides help for people with mental health issues and those who are developmentally disabled.

“When you say ‘long-term care’ to many people, they think nursing home,” Rutherford said. “There’s a whole spectrum of services — wellness programs, meals programs, transportation, senior centers — that are all part of the long-term care system, that we tell people are available in their area.”

Rutherford said people facing long-term care issues often don’t know where to turn.

“People don’t realize there’s programs out there to help them, or they don’t know where to enter the system,” she said. “A lot of times, they don’t realize that if they’re not eligible for Medicaid, or they don’t have a lot of bills to pay, there’s still service providers out there for those in-between people.”

When they call NY Connects, they get a virtual database of information. Rutherford said each caller is screened for their health status and functionality, then matched with service providers who can help them.

If someone doesn’t qualify for the program, Rutherford said, NY Connects can at least point them in the right direction.

“We don’t just say, ‘Sorry, we can’t help you,’ ” she said. “We try to put them in touch with where they should be.”

Dobrasz said she was astonished by the results she got when she called to find help for her parents.

“I would make one phone call, and that would be it,” she said. “They have all the answers, and they seem to be very friendly and willing to help.”

Rutherford said the system is “unbiased.”

“We don’t pick and choose for people,” she said. “We don’t tell them, ‘Oh, you should use provider A or provider B.’ What we do is give them the tools to make an educated decision about what’s best for them in their situation.”

In the second quarter of 2008, the program received 70 phone calls. In the next quarter, which just ended, the program received 168 phone calls.

Rutherford expects that number to continue to climb.

“It keeps going up,” she said. “As people learn about it, our phone calls are increasing.”

Some people are also repeat callers, who need more guidance as their situations change.

“A lot of them are coming back to the program, which is a great compliment to us,” she said.

Chris Richbart, director for the Niagara County Office for the Aging, said the NY Connects program is a great asset to the community.

“There’s a huge need out there,” he said. “Until you really get into the long-term care system, you don’t realize how helpless you feel when you’re trying to deal with it. ... Having one central number that people can call, helps people tremendously.”

Contact reporter April Amadon

at 439-9222, ext. 6251.