Five Hundred Hats
Happy Friday everyone! I’m not sure if you are familiar with or have even read the story by Dr. Seuss titled The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins (1938). I won’t go into great detail but in a nut shell…every time Bartholomew tries to take off his hat before the king, a new one appears on the top of his head…and the closer Bartholomew gets to the 500th hat, the more elaborate and elegant the hats become. Yesterday, I had the opportunity and the pleasure to sit with one of the case managers from the Area 9 Agency, Tricia Luebbe of the Richmond office. While I was talking with her about what the Area 9 Agency does for our communities and the tireless work she and her co-workers perform for their clients, this book crept into the back of my mind.
Case managers from the Area 9 Agency are charged with the task of checking in with clients who have sought help to get connected to various services that are provided throughout Fayette, Franklin, Rush, Union and Wayne counties that make up the Area 9 service area. I asked Tricia about how many cases they manage at any given time and I was shocked to hear how many people they are helping week in and week out. At any given moment the case managers could have up to seventy cases that they take care of. Some of these individuals are very self-sufficient and require very little in the way of extra help from the case workers but many of the clients that are in the care of the case worker needs a little more. This is where the 500 hats comes in…these men and women who help their clients sometimes need to wear many different hats of responsibility during the process of discharging the best service possible for their clients. Case workers like Tricia are advocates for their clients as they deal with the various state and local agencies that their clients deal with. Maybe a client doesn’t fully understand their insurance or their Medicaid application, maybe there is a medical condition that might cause a foul up with the acceptance of services, depending on the situation, Tricia and her co-workers pull out whatever “hat” is needed and works to resolve the issue.
The Area 9 Agency really does a great job of helping people of all ages connect to the right services within the community. They have been a division Indiana University since the early 1970’s and the number of people that have been helped numbers in the thousands. I think every person who strives to serve those in need has a success story that might stand out above the rest…Tricia is no different. She shared several stories where the common theme involved the client overcoming obstacles like transportation issues (due to being wheelchair bound), being on a fixed income, lack of family support, etc. and due to the services they were connected with, rose out of the shadows of those challenges and obstacles in order to lead a fuller and well-rounded life.
By choosing to accept the challenge of wearing many different hats that comes with selflessly helping others better their lives, people like Tricia and the rest of the good folks at Area 9 continue to make a daily impact in our communities. Check out their website and see what they might be able to do for you or someone you may know. http://www.iue.edu/area9/index.html Again, my hat is off to Tricia and her fellow case workers…thanks for reading everyone, have a great weekend and remember, take care of each other, we’re all in this together.
Wm Reid
Best Home Care Services
325 N Eastern Ave
Connersville, IN 47331
765-827-9833
wmreid@bhcshealth.com