Lifelong Medical Care

Grantee Stories

Helping to provide essential services to enable seniors to live at home.

Over 60 Health Center was founded by the Gray Panthers in 1976, bringing community-based health care to Berkeley’s low-income seniors. In its 45 years of serving the Bay Area, and now treating all ages, Lifelong Medical Care has grown to a network of 14 primary care clinics, four dental clinics and many other services. True to its roots, Lifelong has remained a national leader and advocate for innovative services designed to keep even frail seniors independent in the community and out of nursing homes.

Of all our grantees, GFF’s relationship with Lifelong Medical Care stretches back the longest. In fact, it was Olga Graham herself who helped set up the Victor E. Graham Memorial Fund during the 1980’s, in memory of her husband. The original correspondence in 1988 appears below between Marty Lynch, then Director of Over 60 Health Center and Olga Graham, about their plans for the fund. Since the passing of Olga Graham, the GFF has expanded its programs with Lifelong in keeping with her vision.

OUR INITIATIVES

GFF has established two ongoing funds at Lifelong that are available to senior patients at the Over 60 Health Center in Berkeley and the East Oakland Clinic. These funds benefit some of Lifelong’s most vulnerable patients at risk of institutionalization.

The Victor E. Graham Memorial Fund allows Lifelong’s social services team to provide vital medical equipment and transportation services not covered by Medicare but which help ensure patients can remain independent in their homes;
The Graham Respite Care Fund provides in-home care which enables participants’ families to get much needed relief from caregiving demands and assists in keeping patients living at home.

GFF has also contributed to several special funding drives during the past 15 years:

A matching campaign to equip ten Over 60 Health Center exam rooms with power tables and chairs to increase access for patients with limited mobility
A Graham Dental Fund that covered dental services for low-income patients when the State of California temporarily eliminated adult Medi-Cal dental services.
A pilot demonstration project to launch a mini dental implants service for low-income seniors

The Graham Family Fund embodies the same values of care, compassion, and community as LifeLong Medical Care through its support of crucial items and services that keep seniors living independently at home for as long as possible.

- David B. Vliet, CEO, LifeLong Medical Care

The Graham Funds have helped hundreds of LifeLong Medical Care patients. Their family’s hearts are wide open.

- Rosilyne Wright, MSW, Elder Care Coordinator, LifeLong East Oakland Health Center

Patients’ families provided with respite care by the Graham Respite Care Fund

Senior patients served by the Victor Graham Memorial Fund

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Exam rooms equipped with electric exam tables

Dorothy and her mother started a fund named after their father and husband, Victor Graham. These services provide items not covered by Medicare and help keep older and frail adults in their own homes. The other fund is a respite-care service.

Dorothy Graham, our Bobbie Award winner this year, continues to carry that torch. Ms. Graham worked for more than 30 years as an advocate, planner, and administrator to improve the health care system so that low-income and medically indigent people could receive the care they so desperately need.

“My mother, Olga Graham, started a wonderful program for seniors at LifeLong Medical Care in my father Victor E. Graham’s memory, after his death in 1987,” says daughter Dorothy Graham.

Patient Stories from the Over 60 Health Center Social Services Team

Mr. B is a 62-year-old man living in senior housing. He has been losing his vision for many years now but in the past year he has become virtually blind. With the help of the Graham Fund we were able to purchase him an answering machine and a hand held tape recorder. With these items he has been able to rely on more than just his memory. He uses the hand held tape recorder to record his appointments and erases them as he goes along. He also uses it to record his poems, since he can no longer see the keys on the keyboard to write them down. Mr. B uses his computer a lot and his social worker will be applying again to the Graham fund to buy some software for his computer that will allow him to continue writing down his poems and stories. His case manager has seen how these items helped to improve his quality of life.

Mr. M is an 81-year-old man from Louisiana. He has a 90-year-old sister who lives there whom he had not seen in over 20 years. Mr. M’s sister does not have a phone and Mr. M really wanted to be able to see her again before she or he died. With the help of the Graham fund we were able to purchase him a bus ticket to go down and see his sister. Mr. M was extremely grateful for this present.

Ms. K is a 68-year old woman who was homeless before moving into her current apartment in senior housing a couple of years ago. She is an obese woman and bed bound, but has a chore worker and some family members who help to care for her and maintain her apartment. When she was notified of her annual apartment inspection she requested assistance to purchase cleaning supplies. Having been homeless for a number of years, Ms. K was feeling especially anxious about the possibility her housing could be threatened by a bad review. It was important for her to make a good impression on the management. Through the Graham Fund her social worker was able to provide the financial assistance necessary to ease her mind and provide the cleaning supplies needed for the client to pass her inspection.

Mr. M is an 88-year old man with Parkinson’s Disease. He lives with his wife but has no other family in the area. He is often sad about how far away his children are and the lack of contact he has with them. Though he was a writer for many years, due to his Parkinson’s he no longer able to write and therefore cannot send letters to his children. With the Graham Fund his social worker was able to purchase a small tape recorder and blank tapes so that in this way he can communicate with his family. He was excited about being able to use technology and has already sent one “taped letter” to his daughter.

Ms. C lives in senior housing and is on a very tight budget. Her income is just above the Medi-Cal income requirement, so she does not qualify for the benefit, but often does not have the money to pay the co-pays required by her insurance for her medical care or medical supplies and prescriptions. When Ms. C needed to get new orthotic shoes, the Graham Fund was able to cover the co-pay she could not afford.