Some fields in Aroostook County are so large and have so few trees that the wind whips the snow across the roads and into the paths of vehicles. So, in addition to plowing, residents dig and push the snow beyond the initial snowbank, in a path parallel to the road. The depressions catch the ground blizzards, protecting motorists.
It’s one simple way of adapting to harshness.
Such depressions pockmarked a field near Susan McPherson’s home in Westfield recently. The 67-year-old is one of the original participants in a 1-year-old endeavor by the Aroostook County Sheriff’s Office to ensure residents are safe and well.
The Friendly Caller Program builds on what neighbors have done for ages: checked in on those who are older, not as mobile or who just appreciate the human connection.
With this program, The County has joined other places across Maine that are creating their own catch points for residents being swept along by time and circumstance.
Seven days a week, between 6 and 10 a.m., McPherson calls the county communications center to let one of the dispatchers know she’s all right. She knows their names and usually chats for a couple minutes. If she doesn’t call in the set time period, a dispatcher will call her.
She has never had an emergency, but if a dispatcher couldn’t reach her, a police officer would be sent to see if she was OK.
“There aren’t too many things in this world that give you that feeling of being protected,” she said.
Check-in programs are billed as a way to improve people’s safety. But what they offer is more than the availability of physical assistance. They present the option for people to connect with another human being. That’s why the best check-in programs have a live person at the other end of the line, rather than a voice recording.
“The piece that’s so critical about the programs is that it addresses this issue of isolation. It makes a human connection,” said Jess Maurer, executive director of the Maine Association of Area Agencies on Aging. “Someone knows they exist in the world and cares about them. And there is real value to that interaction at a human level.”
In addition, the programs essentially cost nothing. No new staff are needed, as dispatchers are already available and answering calls, and police are already on the clock. In an emergency, police likely would be responding anyway — though possibly too late to help.
Yet there aren’t many programs like this in Maine — about 30 out of more than 130 law enforcement agencies, Maurer said — and they are woefully underused. Aroostook’s Friendly Caller Program, for example, has only four participants.
Mauer said every Maine resident who needs one should have access to a check-in program.
“I really think it would be terrific if every law enforcement agency in Maine could either offer themselves or collaborate with another to create a regional calling opportunity,” she said.
The Aroostook program started when a resident called Sheriff Darrell Crandall Jr. and asked if The County had a check-in program.
“I said, ‘What’s that?’” Crandall said.
After learning about it from the caller, he asked one of the dispatchers, Bobbie McAtee, to research how to start such a program. She in turn called Waldo County Regional Communications Center, which has run a check-in program for several years.
“We found it was a program that could be duplicated without much concern,” Crandall said. “Those least able to protect themselves or care for themselves, we’re going to be there any way we can.”
People who want to participate in the program may call 800-432-7842, and an application will be mailed to them. They then fill it out and send it back, with details about their living situation and contacts in case of an emergency. Once approved, they will be notified about when to start calling.
One morning several months ago, a program participant who never had forgotten to call didn’t call. Sgt. Kris Miller went to the man’s home to do a wellness check; his son was called to meet there, too. The man was in need of hospital attention and passed away a week later.
Miller said, “If it wasn’t for the program …”
“… Who knows,” Wendy Sabattis, a dispatcher, finished.
In another case, Miller said a program participant lives alone with no family or friends in the area. He signed up for the program because he was most concerned about what would happen to his dogs if he died and no one knew.
Check-in programs are designed to help residents, but they can have a welcome impact on law enforcement agencies: a meaningful experience for dispatchers, who often form bonds with the callers and get a small break from the continuous stream of emergencies.
“They do over time start to get like family. You worry about them, especially if it’s bad weather,” said Sabattis, who has worked for the sheriff’s office about 15 years, most of them as a dispatcher.
Recently, Sabattis had the opportunity to meet McPherson for the first time, face to face in McPherson’s home. Holding coffee in bright blue mugs, they chatted about their families and mutual acquaintances.
McPherson said she wasn’t sure about joining the Friendly Caller Program at first. But after family encouraged her to participate and she talked with people who recommended it, she signed up. She had thought about getting a Lifeline medical alert button but thought she might forget to wear it.
The Friendly Caller Program is “the program for me,” she said. “I’m a talking person.”
Check-in programs like the one in Aroostook aren’t designed to meet every need of older residents. They don’t replace Lifeline buttons, programs that provide living assistance or basic neighborliness. But they do offer a broad safety net at little cost.
McPherson and Sabattis kept chatting as Sabattis walked out the door and then exchanged a few more words on the steps outside the house, before finally saying farewell. They could continue the conversation later.
