County elderly discover benefits of computers through new program

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PRESQUE ISLE – With the click of a computer mouse, Lois Downing of Houlton can send an e-mail to her daughter in Texas, send her weekly column to the local newspaper or look for information on the World Wide Web.

“There’s so much out there for us,” said Downing, a resident at Ricker Plaza Senior Citizens Apartments in Houlton. “When I get into it more, I plan to research health issues.”

Downing is one of more than 150 senior citizens in Aroostook County – some are in their 90s – who are logging onto computers to stay in touch with family and friends, play games or just browse through the Computer Access Program for Seniors, also known as CAPS.

For Dottie Sines, a social worker for the Aroostook Area Agency on Aging, that’s good news.

“What I saw coming across my desk time after time were assessments done by my employees who found depression in a lot of our elders,” Sines said during a recent interview.

“We thought a lot of this depression might be because of isolation,” she continued. “We wondered how to dispel that isolation.”

Sines said her agency makes referrals to the Aroostook Mental Health Agency, but sometimes the people who need the help don’t accept that offer because of fear of mental health issues.

“We tried to think of some other way to get our foot in the door,” she said, adding that it was then that she thought of using computers to help senior citizens.

Enter Bruce Archer, a 49-year-old student in the social work program at the University of Maine at Presque Isle.

A motorcycle mechanic, Archer was injured in 1991 when a motorcycle fell on him. Two years later, he began to lose his eyesight and today is legally visually impaired.

Because of his impairment, Archer relies almost exclusively on computers and other adaptive equipment to read and write.

“I couldn’t go to school without the computers,” he said.

When Archer needed a place to do his internship, Sines snatched him up. She felt his experience with computers was just what she needed to get her computer idea off the ground.

Last June, Archer developed CAPS.

“There’s a lot of isolation in Aroostook County and depression is rampant,” he said. “The intention [of CAPS] was to just loan computers to the elderly and have them get taught how to use the e-mail.”

Getting the computers to start the program was difficult at first, since many people didn’t understand what Archer was trying to do. It didn’t take long for that to change. Businesses and individuals so far have donated more than 40 computers.

“The public has been really good about contributing stuff,” Archer said. “Once they hear what it’s for, there’s no problem.”

Several agencies, including AmeriCorps, the school consortium ECHO 2000 and Loring Job Corps, have formed a partnership with CAPS to provide assistance.

Students in the Job Corps computer technology program take care of repair and refurbishment of the computers and provide technical support for the program. AmeriCorps staff serves as computer teachers for senior citizens.

Computer sites for seniors are located in at least 10 communities from Houlton to Fort Kent. Another half-dozen seniors have loaned computers in their homes.

At some sites, students in local schools work with senior citizens who are in the schools for the Meals for Me program. In other cases, AmeriCorps volunteers have served as tutors at the local sites.

That’s what Ethel Stilwell of Houlton does. She was trained under the AmeriCorps GOALS, or Go Online with AmeriCorps at Libraries and Schools, program.

Hesitant at first when asked to serve as a computer tutor, Stilwell, 71, now has two senior citizen students from Hodgdon with whom she works.

“My sister thought I was cracking up, but it’s worked out just fine,” said Stilwell while getting another teaching lesson of her own at Cary Memorial Library in Houlton with Judy Hutchinson, an AmeriCorps member.

“There’s not much for entertainment, other than the television for many [senior citizens],” she said. “I think [the computer] opens all kinds of knowledge up to them. You should see some of the things they can get off those computers.”

Archer said the CAPS program has gone far beyond simply breaking the boredom of isolation.

“The computer turns into a tool for contact with their family; contact with their doctor; they can even get prescriptions over the Internet,” said Archer.

Sines agreed.

“What some people have told me is that it’s made a big deal in their whole life,” she said. “They can communicate with a family member in Alaska that they might otherwise only call once a year. It gives families increased opportunities to communicate,” she said.

Archer is proud of what has been done in less than a year.

“It’s huge and it’s just getting bigger and bigger,” he said.

“It’s not my project anymore; it’s not the agency’s project. It’s The County’s project,” he said.