If possible, let’s try to prevent another elderly tragedy

If you spend any amount of time at all working in journalism, law enforcement, emergency services, social work on in any number of other fields, then there is a pretty good chance you have dealt with a tragedy in some form or another.

Mark White is Editor of The News Journal.

One of the most tragic ones I have covered occurred back in the 1990s. A station wagon was involved in a wreck in the Mountain Ash area and hit a stump killing a small child inside.

There wasn’t a dry eye at the scene as Mountain Lifeline Owner Larry Robbins carried the body of the little girl out of the vehicle. Counselors had to be brought in to help first responders deal with it. I daresay that none of us, who were there that day, will ever forget it. I know I won’t.

This was one of those tragedies that just happen because something or someone is in the wrong place at the wrong time. As tragic as it is, it isn’t really preventable.

Then you have preventable tragedies, which in some ways are more frustrating.

A good example of a preventable tragedy was the death of Harrold Elms, 80, and Barbara Elms, 81, who were found dead inside their Oak Grove Church Road home near Corbin on Nov. 9, 2021.

The couple died from exposure inside their home in weather much less severe than what we had last week. The electricity to their home had apparently been turned off and there was no heat. The couple had been dead at least a few days before their bodies were found, according to the coroner’s office.

Could these two deaths have been prevented if we had a program that involved people just calling once a day to check up on some of our more vulnerable senior citizens to make sure that they are alright, and if the caller couldn’t get a hold of them, to send out law enforcement or EMS or the fire department or somebody just to check on them? Perhaps.

If there was such a program and someone found out that the couple didn’t have electricity or heat, then you have to think that maybe, just maybe these two deaths could have been prevented.

There are programs that help people pay utility bills, who can’t afford it. These programs often have limited funding, but if someone called the judge executive’s office, or the mayor’s office, or if any one of our many non-profit groups knew about the plight of someone in these circumstances, then chances are there would have been someone out there willing to step up and help.

This is who our community is and what we do.

The Williamsburg Police Department started a program like what I am talking about several years ago.

The Senior Patrol Program involved a police officer calling to check up on local senior citizens, who sign up for the program. It was started back when Russell Jones was police chief if I remember correctly.

Officers would help out the seniors involved in the program through several ways, such as sometimes going to pick up prescription medication or groceries for them if they are unable to get out.

Mainly though, they just called once a day to check up on them, and if they couldn’t get a hold of them, then somebody ran by to check on them.

The program hasn’t been active in a few years primarily because no one had signed up any senior citizens for it, but it is a great example of something that could possibly prevent a tragedy like the one that struck Harrold Elms and Barbara Elms.

Something similar would be great for one of our non-profit or church groups to do.

Let senior citizens sign up or let one of their friends or relatives sign them up. A volunteer then calls them once a day throughout the week to check on them, preferably around the same time of day so the senior citizen will know to be around the phone then. Have a protocol set up with an agency or agencies in emergency services or police to check on the person, if they can’t be reached after a few calls just to make sure that they are alright.