University Daily Kansan. November 10. 1982
Page 9
KU Med service to help aged cope with red tape
By VICKY WILT Staff Reporter
Staff Reporter
KANSAS CITY, Kan.—Senior citizens will find the complex facilities at the University of Kansas Medical Center less confusing after today thanks to a new service for elderly patients.
Eugene Staples, hospital administrator, said the goal of the new Senior Citizens Health Center, which was to be dedicated this morning, was to keep healthy and ambulatory so they could live independently (or as long as possible).
"What we are trying to do is assist older people as they come through the Medical Center," Staples said. "Persons over 65 can register with the center at no cost and they will be given an identification card that will enable them to get quick and efficient service on such things as problems with billing, making appointments or social service needs."
The health center's office is located in the main entrance to Bell Memorial Hospital.
Any problem that an older person is having, either within the Med Center or with community services outside the health center, with by with the health center, Staples said.
It can be very confusing for an older
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The health center will offer a sense of security to the senior citizen, Staples said. Volunteers will visit with hospital staff and patients to help them feel less alone.
The center was established to alleviate problems senior citizens encounter in areas of understanding bills, questions and problems with making appointments.
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"A person can call this number any time, day or night, and somebody will answer the telephone and help them get the assistance they need. During the interview their appointments are handled as prompt and efficiently as possible," he said.
If a patient has questions he can call the health center's special number, 588-1234, to get specific answers, Staples said. The health center will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, including holidays.
Programs on topics of interest to older people, such as Social Security or nutrition, also will be offered through the health center.
person who is not feeling well to find his way to a department for an appointment, he said. An escort service will guide him and end their way around the Med Center.
Volunteers are needed at the health center and senior citizens are encouraged.
Dean Palos, a planner in the Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Office who has worked extensively on the downtown project, said, "What's important is that this Sizeler's first opportunity to hear the general public make comments."
Sizer Realty Co. Inc., Kenner, La., and its architectural firm will discuss Lawrence's downtown redevelopment project at a public meeting at 6:30 p.m. tomorrow at City Hall.
Redeveloper to see public
The president of Sizerel, Tom Davidson, and Mayor Marci Francis signed a memorandum of agreement for the project Nov. 4.
Palos said that Davidson and John Stainback, director of planning and urban design for Sizerel's architectural firm, Daniel, Mann, Johnson & Mendenhall, would make a short presentation at the beginning of the meeting, and would then listen to comments from the public.
A flow chart of steps to be taken in the project probably will be presented and explained. Palos said.
Davidson and Stainback met last week with local merchants, neighborhood representatives and banking officials, and will meet with estate agents, merchants, and real estate agents tomorrow and Friday. Palas said.
Hardage, in his second campaign for public office, garnered 339,700 votes, and minor party candidates Jim Ward, Shellon together received 18,972 votes.
FINAL ELECTION tallies in the gubernatorial race show that Carlin captured 405,399 votes, although there are only 833,966 registered Democrats Registered Republicans in Kansas total 409,997 and 374,490 voters are unaffiliated.
Gov. John Carlin's re-election represented a victory for the severance tax but not a significant vote against the traditionally strong Republican Party in Kansas, Robert Bennett, the state chairman of the Republican Party, said recently.
"I think there is no question that Democrats convinced voters that with a severance tax, somebody else would have to pay," Bennett said. "And independent voters, probably more than Republican, decided Sam Hardage just didn't have Carlin's experience."
Bennett also pinpointed the growth of special interest groups and dissatisfaction with President Reagan's policies that weakened the Republican ticket.
Bennett, as well as some Democratic officials, said that Republican and unaffiliated voters obviously contributed to GOP losses in the hotly
GOP still strong, Bennett says
Jim Pigler, state chairman of the Democratic Party, agreed with Bennett that Kansas voters, other than a 25 percent to 30 percent block of "hard-core" members in both parties, ignored fires when faced with the final ballot.
"This is a two-party state and has been since the days of Bob Docking." Bennett said. "I don't think you can say anymore that Kansas will traditionally vote Republican. Kansas voters are one of the least number of voters who have migrated here that do not feel obligated to vote Republican.
"I DON'T think you really can take this election as a turn against the Republican Party. We won most of the elected offices, and we retained the Senate and push comes to shore, the two major contested offices involved personalities."
contested 2nd District congressional and gubernatorial races.
But unlike Bennett, he said he sensed a growing strength in the Democratic Party, which he attributed to the fact that he was on a strong coalition of candidates.
IN THE OTHER Kansas campaign that promoted controversy, Democrat im. Slattery defeated Morris Kay, of the 2nd district and the 2nd District seat in the U.S. House.
But Bennett emphasized that these two easy Democratic victories in no way signified a trend away from Kansas' Republican voting bloc.
BUT BENNETT said that Docking's youth would work against him if he campaigned for governor in 1986. He also suggested that the lieutenant governor would have difficulty gaining any recognition if Carlin continued to ignore the office, as current Lieutenant Paul Duag has complained in the past.
"I would make a rather substantial guess that a Republican will win the governorship four years from now," Bennett said.
"TRADITIONALLY, most statewide offices are held by Republicans, though this has changed a little in recent years," Pliger said. "I think the Democratic Party has come of age." He said the Republican Party was able to run good candidates and possibly combat challenges than they could 20 years ago.
He also said that he foresaw no problem for the re-election of Sen. Robert Dole, R-Kan., if Carlin chose to run against him in 1986.
Ploger said he expected a bright future for the Democratic Party in Kansas and, for the lieutenant governor-elect, Tom Docking.
Docking, a 28-year-old tax attorney, has a family history etched with state politics. Both his father and grandfather served as Kansas governors.
Carin has said he would fulfill all four years of the governor's term, but hilted in a press conference last week that he interested in a future in the U.S. Senate.
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