BRAZOS COUNTY, Texas — Brazos County has a large population of senior citizens and now those who live alone in rural areas have a new resource they can call on
“Well I read about a program called, Elder Orphans, in California, about six years ago, and it’s a call-out program for seniors who live alone, and I thought it would be a great program for our county,” explained Precinct 3 Commissioner, Nancy Berry who brought the idea to local law enforcement.
Brazos County Sheriff, Wayne Dicky, has been working on a way to implement this in the community.
“The R U OK program is a program for seniors 65 and older, that live alone, that would like to have someone check up on them from time to time,” Dicky said.
Brazos County is an area where many residents could benefit from this program.
Dicky explained the county's statistics, “Some estimates say that we've got about 25,000 people over 65 years of age in the county, and as many as 25% may be living alone, so we could have seven or eight thousand people that might be eligible for the program.”
The Sheriff hopes the community can come together to meet the needs of those most vulnerable.
"This program is where we’re proactively calling their house, and if no one answers, then we'll send somebody to check on them. We’re working on getting volunteers into place so we can make those calls, and we hope to start in the next 30 days or so,” described Dicky.
The program is for anyone over 65 years of age or homebound adults who live alone and do not have anyone to check on them. Currently, the program is only open to those who live in rural, unincorporated areas of Brazos County.
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