What is a Service Coordinator?
Sometimes when I tell people I'm a service coordinator, I get a blank stare. "What is a service coordinator?", they ask. The short answer is that a service coordinator is a type of social worker. The American Association of Service Coordinators calls service coordinators "the 'lynchpin' connecting frail, disabled residents and families in crisis with community and support services". Eastern Area Adult Services in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, defines a service coordinator as
a Professional in the Human Services field who maintains an office in a subsidized housing apartment building. She/he provides early intervention for residents whose physical and mental health is deteriorating by acting as a liaison between residents and the building management, providing linkages to service providers, assist residents in completion of applications for senior benefits (PACE, rent rebates, etc.) and entitlements. She/he encourages and motivates residents to enhance their quality of life through planning educational meetings and tenant association social events. Participation in the program is voluntary for residents and confidentiality is adhered to at all times.
Service coordinators can work with families, disabled individuals of any age, or senior citizens. Most, if not all, service coordinators are funded directly or indirectly by government agencies. Our main purpose is to help connect the people we are serving with the resources they need to maintain and improve their lives.
All my time as a service coordinator has been with senior citizens and individuals with disabilities, so I can only speak from that viewpoint.
Over the last decades of the twentieth century there were many cultural changes in the US. Institutions were shut down and their inhabitants relocated to private and public housing in a search for greater dignity in life and decreased monetary expense to the state. American families saw a shift from multigenerational living to the nuclear family and seniors living by themselves. Daily living assistance no longer being provided to disabled and frail individuals to the extent that they are available in a multigenerational home, along with this has come an explosion in assisted living facilities, nursing homes, and personal care homes, all of which are expensive to the individual or the government paying for their services, all of which can limit the choices of those living there to some extent.
Institutions developed and agencies were put in place to aid people living in their new circumstances, but getting the people and the agencies together was somewhat problematic. Agencies don't know how to contact the people who need their services. Individuals don't know what services are available to them. Thus, in the late 1970s the new profession of service coordinator came into being. Over the last 30 years there has been a steady growth in the number of people who are service coordinators. The reason is that they are effective at accomplishing their goal.
Seniors and people with disabilities tend to have lower incomes than the general population. Services coordinators help connect them with benefits they are eligible for, whether this is health care, medication payment assistance, rent and property tax reductions and rebates, or food procurement assistance. The recipient gets an effectively higher income, while the government sees a long term decrease in costs due to an improved level of health among the people they are assisting.
Seniors and people with disabilities are at increased risk to have more health problems than the general population. This can lead to institutionalization of one form or another, health problems, or increased stays in rehabilitation facilities. Institutions, as I said, are expensive, while private and subsidized housing are much less expensive. Services, such as cleaning and personal care, that the recipient receives to allow them to stay in their current living situation results in much lower long term expenses to the government. The recipient of the services, who may pay for all, part, or none of the services they receive, is allowed the dignity and independence of remaining in their home as long as safely possible. The individual, the government, and the taxpayer all win.
Another function service coordinators serve is that of informal counsellor. Everyone needs someone to talk to at times. As you get older, you may see your family drift away or pass on before you. Service coordinators hold all information they receive from anyone strictly confidential. Except in certain situations regarding safety or criminal wrongdoing, they don't share any of it without a release of information being signed. As a result, for many people the service coordinator has become a friendly and sympathetic ear. Most have received training in how to listen. Most would not be in the field they are in if they didn't care about the people with whom they work. Someone to talk to may be all the person needs. If they need more than that, the service coordinator is able to point the person in right direction to get assistance, whether it be support, formal counselling, or medical care.
A thorough explain of a job I'm sure most people, at least above the poverty line, do not even know exists. I do unfortunately feel that in the past few decades there has been a breakdown in the sense of social responsibility as a whole in American society. This is not to say that there are not even many millions of caring individuals who give of their time effort and finances to help those less fortunate, but I feel that taken as a whole, there has been a shift taking attention away from those less fortunate. Perhaps in the big picture this has simply occurred because of the switch from a one job to two job family from the middle class down. This would also explain the disappearance of multi generational homes.
I can't speak to a breakdown in social responsibility in the US. I don't know if there has been or not.
I also can't speak to the need for a two-income family in other areas of the country. I can address it regarding where I live. To be blunt, in most cases the only reason for a two income family around here is to get the latest goodies created by our lovely corporations and portrayed as needs by the advertising industry. People think they have to have a brand new car, preferable two. They think they have to have a large house. The average size of house has doubled from around 1000sqft in the 1950s to around 2400sqft. People think they have to have cable with the movie channels. They think they have to eat prepared food, not to mention eating out frequently. This isn't even talking about the spiffy new electronics that come out every year, along with the movies and music to go with them. They just want more stuff, and stuff comes at a price. If people were to live at a comparable standard of living that their parents lived at, two earner incomes wouldn't be necessary.
There is nothing wrong with both people in a house wanting to work. I just get tired of hearing it portrayed as a necessity in all parts of the country. I know in some parts of the country the cost of living is absolutely horrendous. Then, there may be a need for two incomes.
The disappearance of multigenerational homes goes along with the increase in the standard of living in the US. Over the past century there has been a real increase in the standard of living, even taking into consideration what I said above. Seniors have a guaranteed source of income in the form of Social Security. They have health insurance. They have choice. Most of the people I work with do not choose to live with their families. When deteriorating health requires them to live in a supervised living arrangement, they choose to go to a personal care home rather than move in with family members. Sometimes they will say they don't want to impose. Other times, and I think more honestly, they say they don't want their kids telling them what to do. They would rather have strangers telling them what to do than the children they raised.