Tag Archives for Rick Ryan

Barbara Rayner Leaves Legacy of Support

Published in Senior Digest on August 2004

Barbara Ann Rayner was a tireless advocate for Rhode Island seniors and community-based services for the past 20 years, according to her peers who looked back at her life. They knew her as a dedicated professional with a great sense of humor.

Rayner, who served as Coventry’s human resource director, the first director of the community’s senior citizens center and later as director of Coventry Human Services, died last month after a long illness.

For five years, she served as director of the state’s Department of Elderly Affairs (DEA) being replaced by the then newly-elected Gov. Donald Carcieri.

She served on the Kent County Coalition of Nonprofit Executives and was a Rhode Island delegate for the White House Conference on Aging. She was appointed by the governor to sit on the Advisory Council on Health, the Commission on Care and Safety of the Elderly and the state’s Para-transit Task Force.

As a former director of the Rhode Island Association of Senior Programs and a founding member of CHOICES, a coalition of community-based care providers, Rayner fought to adequately fund services to keep Rhode Island seniors in their homes and independent.

At the national level, Rayner served as the immediate past chair of the National Institute of Senior Centers, a constituent union of the National Council on Aging (NCOA). She was also a contributing author of the revised Senior Center Standards & Guidelines, and was actively involved in NCOA’s policy agenda and international affairs initiatives.

Rayner was recognized nationally for her advocacy’s efforts when she received the Founders Award from NCOA in 1998, and was recognized on the state-level in 1999 with the Thomas A. Lamb Home Care Award.

Maureen Maigret, director of public policy for Lt. Governor Charles Fogarty, remember that Rayner was “very sensitive to the needs of the elderly and to ageism.”

The former DEA director was a passionate, dedicated professional, says Maigret, who noted that Rayner always knew the importance of laughter and having fund.

Under the DEA tenure of Rayner, home and community-based services greatly expanded in the state,” noted Maigret, saying that she recognized the value of the state providing family support services.

Rick Ryan, director of senior services for South Kingstown, worked closely with Rayner for more than 25 years. “We were very close friends and this grew out of our professional life,” he said.

Ryan says that Rayner was fund to be with and had a tremendous sense of human. She was willing to let her hair down, making her very approachable and real to her colleagues, according to Ryan. As a seasoned professional, she even mentored dozens of others in the aging network both locally and nationally over her 25-year career, he said.

At the national level, Rayner and Ryan, who served on NCOA’s Public Policy Committee were successful in changing the language in the federally enacted Older America’s Act. “Provisions noting that ‘states shall’ were changed to ‘states will’.” This strengthened the act and actually put teeth in it, he said.

Paula Parker, executive director of the Rhode Island Partnership for Home Care, remembers Rayner as “being passionate and committed to community based services.”

The members of CHOICES were very pleased to see her appointed as DEA director and then see her translate this passion for home and community based services through her leadership to creating state programming and policy supporting this level of care,” she says.

Joan Crawley, director of the Pawtucket-based Leon Mathieu Senior Center, notes that Rhode Island’s senior centers network owes Rayner “a debt of gratitude.” Under her leadership as director of DEA, support for Rhode Island’s senior centers grew by leaps and bounds,” Crawley observed, noting that new programs and services and initiatives were dramatically increased under her rein.

“It was her vision to see Rhode Island senior centers nationally accredited,” notes Crawley. “To this end, she not only found money to fund this project but she also worked with each of the 14 senior center directors, giving technical support and encouragement for them to successfully prepare for accreditation, Carwly says.

Crawley says that Rayner wanted no senior center left behind. “I can still remember her proud smile as each of us stepped up to the podium during NCOA’s national conference in Colorado to receive the prestigious recognition of accreditation for our senior centers,” Crawley noted.

Barbara Ann Rayner left behind a lengthy list of accomplishments that benefited senior centers and those who work for and with the elderly. She will be missed.

The Best Of…Day Services Help Seniors Stay at Home

Published on May, 7, 2001, Pawtucket Times

            Like apples and oranges, senior centers and adult day care are quite different.  But when viewed as complementary community-based services, each can be instrumental in keeping elderly Rhode Islanders independent and at home.

           While senior centers serve the independent older population, programs and services provided by adult day care centers are specifically designed for functionally or cognitively impaired adults.

          Senior centers can serve as “brokers” between the elderly and the surrounding community, creating access to a wide variety of programs and services, states Rick Ryan, former chair of the Washington, DC-based National Institute for Senior Centers and director of senior services for South Kingstown.

        According to Ryan, some people today still believe the myth that senior centers are drop-in centers or “play pens for the frail aged where persons are spoon-fed programs and services.”  Not true, he says.

        “Indeed we have come a long way,” Ryan noted, stating that “senior centers are not developed through a cookie cutting process.”  Programs across the nation are as varied and diverse as the older population that they serve.  In fact, he says, senior centers evolved in response to their surrounding communities and reflect the interest and values of those older adults who not only participate in their programs, but also help shape them.

        For those participating, Ryan stated hat senior centers offer a menu of activities, with older participants being allowed to develop and design their own programs. Activities can range from computer labs offering Internet access, yoga, line dancing, aerobics, playing cards, art classes or even shooting pool.

         Since the early 1970s, adult day care centers have existed. According to the National Association of Adult Day Services in Washington, DC., here are more than 3,000 adult day care centers currently operating nationally.

         “There are 16 state-certified adult day care centers in Rhode Island,” noted Ryan, who also is a member of the Rhode Island Adult Day Services Association, a group representing programs in all of the state’s 39 cities and towns.

         Ryan stated that adult day centers provide a comprehensive planned program of health, social and support services in a protective setting during daytime hours.  “Activities include mental processing programs such as current affairs and word association games to stimulate thinking more physical activities like volleyball, dancing and range of motion exercises.”

         Services at adult day centers are specifically designed to meet the individual needs of the elderly and strongly focus on ways to help relieve the stress of the caregivers.  Such programs are critical in assisting caregivers to maintain their loved ones at home in the community.

       Adds Sharon Rice, director of the Comprehensive Day Care Center, a program of the Jewish Seniors Agency, “One of the most important factors of a day care program is that adult children taking care of elderly frail parents don’t have to worry about how they can take care of their parents, work a full-time demanding job while caring for their children.”  She noted that most adult children prefer to have their parents “age in place” at home rather than have to institutionalize them in a nursing home.

   According to Rice, today’s day care centers in Rhode Island have undergone vigorous licensing procedures through the state’s Department of Elderly Affairs to ensure quality.

          Ensuring quality through licensure can increase the adult children’s willingness to place his or her parents in an adult day care program, she said.

         Currently, Rice states there are 30 frail elderly persons enrolled in her day care program, attending each day.  Although located in Wayland Square on Providence’s East Side, Jewish Seniors Agency program, established in 1974, also serves East Providence and nearby Pawtucket.

         Keeping a person at home is not always the best option. Rice says, because the older person becomes isolated. “Day care can promote friendship, social interaction and therapeutic activities,” she added.

        “Person with Alzheimer or related-dementia, Parkinson’s disease or  who have suffered strokes receive supportive services at the day care center from a registered nurse, a professional social worker, and a certified nursing assistant,” Rice added, noting that participants also are served kosher meals.

      When adult children are faced with care giving responsibilities for their loved ones they do have a choice – to keep the person at home and not in a nursing home, Rice quipped.  “Adult children should feel comfortable in knowing that they can keep a frail elderly family member at home and in the surrounding community.

         Herb Weiss is a freelance Pawtucket-based writer who covers aging, health care and medical issues.   He can be reached at hweissri@aol.com.