Greater Lynn Senior Services

The Homeless Elders/Regional Housing Advocacy Program helps seniors throughout Greater Lynn, the North Shore, and Cape Ann, and from all walks of life, to find good housing they can afford. While the program provides assistance and supports to homeless elders, it also aims to prevent senior citizens from becoming homeless in the first place. Housing advocates help relocate elders who have been displaced or are in jeopardy of losing their homes, as well as work to resolve landlord-tenant conflicts. Advocacy and assistance are provided free of charge to any senior regardless of income. A nurse visits every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to take blood pressure.
 
For nearly 20 years, and in conjunction with this program, GLSS has provided assistance to homeless seniors through its Homeless Elders Breakfast Support Program at the Lynn Senior Center located downtown within proximity to area shelters. This program ensures a nutritious daily meal to individuals over 60 who are homeless or unable to independently cook because of environmental, psychological, cognitive or social limitations.  GLSS serves breakfast to approximately 55 guests per day, for a total of 14,300 meals annually. To ensure that no senior ever sleeps on the street, GLSS “rents” beds each night from a local shelter. A free lunch is also available at the Senior Center to any senior in need.

Hoarding Disorder has been included in the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Psychiatric Disorders in the 2013 DSM V edition. It is characterized by persistent difficulty discarding possessions regardless of their actual value and/or difficulty non-acquiring items. This difficulty is due to a perceived need to save and distress associated with non-acquiring or with discarding. These symptoms often affect the person’s living area so that some rooms cannot be used for their intended purpose or impede their ability to carry out social, occupational or other important areas of functioning. We often notice these symptoms first when a person is elderly because this may be the first time they have let someone into their home if they are having some other kind of difficulty. Also they have had years of accumulating possessions so the quantity becomes overwhelming. GLSS initiated the program in 2010, to address the growing need of those who hoard. The program aims at helping clients to understand why they have these tendencies and how they can overcome them. The program provides one-on-one and family counseling in the home for GLSS area residents 60 years and older (and occasionally under 60) for whom clutter or a need to collect possessions have taken over their lives. It also provides supportive advocacy and mediation with landlords and others, support groups, referrals to services such as heavy chores, home care, and Meals on Wheels. Further, clients are provided with opportunities to learn and grow through cognitive change; developing insight; prioritizing, and problem-solving skills. Training and consultations with housing authorities, police and other first responders, Boards of Health and other vendors within the GLSS communities are also provided. In 2012 the program was enhanced by starting 10 week de-Clutterers’ Groups. These clients are then followed up in a bi-monthly peer support group in which they continue practicing the skill that they have learned in the psycho-educational De-Clutterer’s group and continue to get support around their attempts to change their behavior

GLSS’ Women’s and Family Abuse Program (WAFAP) is the only program in Massachusetts, and one of only a few in the country, tailored to helping older women who experience intimate partner or family abuse. Our mission is to empower these women by respecting, listening, empathizing, advocating, counseling, offering support groups of other women in similar circumstances, and creating a safe place to heal and grow. WAFAP provides a seamless web of core supports complemented by an array of positive social choices that promote independence, well-being, community integration, and meaningful dignity. Core services include comprehensive needs assessment, individual service plans, ongoing counseling/advocacy, case management, and a variety of peer support options. Critical to achieving success, services are often delivered in the client’s homes. Typical client service needs are medical care, emergency legal intervention, personal advocacy, interagency service coordination, individual and group counseling, group support, legal consultations, in home visits, personal care services (for disabled clients), housing, transportation, and emergency shelter.In 1997, the program began by serving women age 50 and older in 5 communities north of Boston who were coping with, or fleeing from abusive relationships with an intimate partner or spouse. Since that time our expanded outreach efforts have produced important and meaningful collaborations with three other Elder Services agencies, local Councils on Aging, and area Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault agencies North of Boston. This has expanded our referral base and has allowed us to provide services to more than 600 victims from 50 communities in three counties Essex, Middlesex and Suffolk. Currently, three support groups are offered in Lynn, Beverly and Amesbury for women. In July 2015 the program expanded its services to provide support and services to men abused by an intimate partner, as well as those men and women who are/have been abused by adult children and/or grandchildren. A new support group was developed to meet the needs of that population and is held bi-weekly in Lynn.