Walton County

Walton County Council on Aging

Walton County Council on Aging is an elder services agency operating in conjunction with the Northwest Florida Area Agency on Aging and the Department of Elder Affairs. The agency is a case management affiliate staffed with case managers who serve the elderly residents of Walton County in the Alzheimer's Disease Initiative (ADI), Community Care for the Elderly (CCE), Home Care for the Elderly (HCE), Home and Community Based Services (HCBS), and Assisted Living Waiver (ALW) programs.

Walton County Council on Aging provides access to many services for the elderly in Walton County. Some of these services include:

• Nutrition Programs
  • Meals on Wheels: Meals on Wheels provides nutritionally balanced noon meals to homebound older citizens. Participants receive meals Monday through Friday. Meals are planned by a dietitian. Volunteers and staff deliver the meals and, in some cases, provide the only personal contact some homebound individuals may encounter.
    
    
  • Congregate Meals: The congregate meals program allows older persons to share their noon meal with others their age at different locations throughout Walton County. A dietitian plans the menus which meet 1/3 of the daily recommended allowance for persons 60 years old and over. The congregate meals program also incorporates activities, educational programs, arts and crafts and other activities into the daily meal period.
    
    
    • DeFuniak Springs Senior Center
      1154 Baldwin Avenue
      DeFuniak Springs, Florida
      (850) 892-8165
      Monday-Friday 8:30 a.m. - 3 p.m.
      
      Liberty Meal Site
      7670 Highway 331 North
      DeFuniak Springs, Florida
      (850) 834-2481
      Monday-Friday 10:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
      
      Children's Home Meal Site
      5136 County Highway 2
      Laurel Hill, Florida
      (850) 834-2377
      Monday-Friday 10 a.m. - 11 a.m.
      
      Paxton Town Hall
      21872 US Highway 331 North
      Paxton, Florida
      (850) 834-2716
      Monday-Friday 10 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
      
      Freeport City Hall
      112 State Highway 20 West
      Freeport, Florida
      (850) 835-2822
      Monday-Friday 10:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
      
      Valley View Meal Site
      9032 County Highway 1835
      Ponce De Leon, Florida
      (850) 951-0927
      Monday-Friday 10:45 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
      
      
      South Walton Meal Site
      194 North County Highway 393
      (850) 622-0917
      Monday-Friday 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.
  
  
• Nutrition Education: Nutrition education provides instruction in sound purchasing practices which will enable person to obtain maximum nutritional benefits from expenditures for food, instruction in the preparation of nutritionally balanced meals and assistance in development of special diets required by health or social conditions.
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• Shopping Assistance: This services assists the elderly in need in getting to and from stores and in selecting goods.
  
  
• Home Services: The Home Services Project offers on-site assistance to Walton County's older citizens. The purpose of the program is to maintain and improve the quality of home and family life by providing services to those whose independence is limited by illness, disability and other health and social problems. This program attempts to prevent institutionalization by keeping the individual as self-sufficient as possible and in their own home and includes:
  
  
  • Homemaker
  • Personal Care
  • Home Maintenance
  • Respite Care
  • ADI Respite Care
  
  
• Companionship: This service involves visiting a client who is socially and/or geographically isolated in order to help the individual to continue social contact with the community. It provides conversation, assistance with reading and letter writing or just a friendly visit.
  
  
• Outreach: This service includes seeking out older citizens in need of assistance and making one-to-one contact. It helps the older citizens identify specific needs and problems and encourages them to use available resources.
  
  
• Home Care for the Elderly: The goal of this program is to encourage relatives or non-relatives to care for elders in family-type living arrangements in private homes or other institutional care. The program encourages a person acting as a caregiver, to provide basic support and maintenance, as well as assistance in arranging specialized services as needed.
  
  
• Loan Closet: This is a collection of medical equipment that can be loaned to individuals over 60. Included are items such as walkers, hospital beds, portable potties and wheelchairs.

These are just a few of the many formal services that Walton County Council on Aging provides to the community. Informal services rely on an array of community resource agencies committed to assisting elderly residents and may include a variety of services.

Clients are age 60 and above and have functional limitations which make in-home services necessary in order to “age in place”.

Other providers in Okaloosa County

Other service providers for Okaloosa County include:

ADT Companion Services
CareStaff
Fairfield Professional
Food With Care
Gentiva
Guardian Medical Services
HDIS
Home Instead Senior Care
INOA Medical Supplies
Interim Health Care
Loving Care Sitters
MASH Medical
Omni Home Care
Response Link

The Northwest Florida Area Agency on Aging, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) private, not-for-profit charitable organization funded under the Older Americans Act and the State of Florida Department of Elder Affairs.

Page was last updated on 6/06/2005.
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