Williamstown COA Director Finds Reward in Helping Elders
 The Council on Aging's Brian O'Grady has been running Williamstown's senior services for nearly a dozen years. |
Now as director of the Williamstown Council on Aging, O'Grady is dedicated to helping senior citizens lead fuller, healthier lives, through programs and activities the COA offers.
"When I was growing up, I was around a lot of elderly relatives," said O'Grady recently. "My grandparents were alive, and we would hop into the car and go to New York to see other senior relatives. I remember going to my uncle's house. He was a World War I veteran and had a neighbor who was a veteran, too. They would tell stories about the war — not about the horrors but about the camaraderie, the courage, the glory."
Back in North Adams, where the O'Grady family lived, the older members would take care of the young O'Grady when his parents needed to be away from home.
Time has reversed O'Grady's role with older folk, and now he is concerned that they may be denied the care and support they need.
"There is talk of insurance 'doughnut holes' and things which aren't covered, reductions or elimination of programs to elders and waiting lists for some services," O'Grady said. "After years of contributing to our world, as parents and caregivers, in the work force in every conceivable job imaginable, as mostly responsible citizens who answered to calls to everything from military service to jury duty to paying taxes, senior citizens need and deserve as many supportive programs as we can develop."
Ann Luczynski, 80, who has worked with O'Grady for 11 of her 20 years with the COA, can attest to his commitment to elder citizens. "He tries so hard to help people living on their own, taking care of themselves, if possible; if not, he gets help from another place," she said, adding, "He loves sports, but he is so good with people. He is very understanding; if you have a problem, he is willing to listen."
Many a senior citizen has dropped in on O'Grady at his office at the Harper Center, which houses the COA. "Do you have a minute?" they ask O'Grady as he looks up from his computer or the papers piled on his desk. Though the experience has taught O'Grady that a "minute" more often than not turns out to be much longer, he does not turn anyone away as they might need help solving a problem. "We have referred people to where they can get food, clothing, fuel assistance ... ," he said.
The North Adams native became involved with the COA soon after he moved to Williamstown with his wife, Alison, and their two children, Elizabeth and Meghan. At that time, he had been working for Elder Services of Berkshire County for 15 years, including as manager of the North Adams satellite office.
In Williamstown, O'Grady was a member of the COA board when the director, Lynn Hood, resigned. "I decided it was time for a change," he said. And he applied for the position, which he has held since September 1999.
When asked what a typical day at work is like, O'Grady replied, "There is no such thing. It's always different, but never quiet. Some days, I come in and go through the agenda; other days things come up."
The telephone rings almost constantly, he said, and he has received some unusual calls, such as a man complaining about a neighbor he was not getting along with, and an elderly woman from out of town who shouted, "I want my rent." As it turned out she wanted O'Grady to collect overdue rent from her tenant in North Adams. The first thing O'Grady did for those people was to "calm them," he said.
Grown children have made inquiries on their parents' behalf. When a woman wanted to move her mother from Minnesota to Williamstown, O'Grady checked with Meadowvale and Proprietors Field — elder housing communities — to find out if there was a waiting list for prospective renters, and passed the information on to the caller.
A devoted son, O'Grady had carved time out of his beyond-busy days to tend to the needs of his parents. "What stands out," said his wife, Alison, "is that when his parents were older and getting ill, Brian would go to their home (in North Adams) every morning and get them ready for the day. He would take them to their (medical) appointments, or wherever else they had to be, and he did it all with a lot of care."
Sometimes O'Grady brought his parents to the Harper Center. There is always something of interest or just plain entertaining going on there, and lunch is available most days. His widowed mother was at the center the day before she died.
O'Grady writes a monthly newsletter containing cheery tidbits about the world in general, and information about local happenings of special interest to elders. A monthly calendar is also made up, noting what programs and activities are scheduled at the center. These include providing meals, exercise, health clinics, dance, bingo, bridge, Wii bowling, crafts, oil painting, entertainment and social functions. "If you want to keep up with your grandchildren and send emails, come in and we'll teach you how to do that," O'Grady said.
The COA is funded by the town and grants while Elder Services is funded by the state. Last year, a COA outreach worker left the job and was not replaced because of town budget issues. The solution was to have a town employee working splitting her time between the center and Town Hall, but Town Manager Peter Fohlin stated at a recent Finance Committee that "in my opinion and Brian O'Grady's opinion, the half-time worker is not working out as well as the senior citizens deserve."
Thus, O'Grady hopes that voters at the annual town meeting on Tuesday, May 17, will pass the new budget, as it includes funds for the reinstatement of full-time outreach worker at COA.
"The outreach worker is a person who can help advance senior programming in Williamstown, be a marketer for COA, assist me in developing and initiating new ventures and help individuals with problems – insurance issues, public benefits and more," O'Grady pointed out.
He is the not the type of person who fusses about doing something not listed in his job description; he pitches in wherever needed. He has cooked food, mopped floors, cleaned toilets, installed air conditioners and performed the Heimlich maneuver.
Alison O'Grady said her husband goes to the Harper Center on Saturday mornings to answer calls from people who participate in the telephone reassurance program. "He did it on Sundays, too, until someone volunteered to take over that responsibility," she said.
Taking advantage of the telephone reassurance program, people have been rescued from life-threatening situations and more. "If people in the program do not call the Harper Center in the morning to let us know they are OK, we call them, and if we don't get an answer, we call their identified emergency contact. When we don't a response there, we call the police and they make a wellness check," O'Grady explained.
Nine people have been discovered on the floor. "One woman had suffered a massive stroke," he said. "Her son called me and said, 'You saved my mother's life.'"
Word has apparently traveled beyond the Berkshires that the local Council on Aging is the place to go when you need help. "One day a young man showed up with a young (and pregnant) woman, and told me they wanted to go to college and needed a place to live," O'Grady recalled. "Then he said, 'We can make this work, we just need a little help to get over this hump, and my grandmother (who lives out of state) told me that in Massachusetts the Council on Aging knows everything.'"
The Council on Aging newsletter and calendar is available at the Harper Center, 118 Church St., or can be accessed on the town's website, www.williamstown.net.
