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August 1999
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August 1999
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D.
The all-volunteer Ninth District Loan Closet lends out much-needed medical equipment to speed recovery.
By Adele Evans
(Reprinted with permission by Mild Mannered Communications, LLC)Lorraine Fidler laughs when recalling her recent trip to the Ninth District Loan Closet. A volunteer in her 70's helped Lorraine load the borrowed medical equipment into her car's trunk. That kind of energy and commitment is unusual from any volunteer, no matter what age.
"I'm 53 and here she was in her 70's helping me," recalls Fidler.
"They're wonderful," she added, refering to the all-volunteer force that operates the Ninth District Loan Closet out of the former Loch Raven Elementary School, located just east of Towson.
Lorraine, a Baltimore City resident, has been a fan of the Loan Closet since 1985 when she needed medical equipment for her uncle that his insurance wouldn't pay for. Today, after two commodes, a couple of wheelchairs, bedside trays and two canes, she's a staunch advocate of the relief service.
"The Loan Closet has been great for me," Lorraine says. "I've used them for my uncle, my sister - who was flat on her back for a year, and my mother.
"Insurance doesn't cover a lot of things. It can be very costly."
D.
Simple, important mission
It's that constant desire to make someone's medical rehabilitation or later years easier - and less expensive - which continues to motivate the volunteers at the Loan Closet, despite being up-rooted repeatedly, shrinking volunteer numbers and an aging membership.
But the dedicated volunteers of the non-profit committee which operates the facility are intent upon keeping the Loan Closet going. Afterall, their mission is simple and important: lending wheelchairs, crutches, stools, mattresses, trays, neck traction and other medical equipment free of charge to anyone needing them.
There's just one catch: if you're not using it, please return it so someone else can. As catches go, that's not much of one.
Sometimes there are waiting lists for popular items, sometimes not. But Loan Closet volunteers can usually track down whatever is needed quickly.
Occasionally, the committee will even provide food baskets and emergency health assistance when called upon by public health nurses or the Towson Assistance Center.
'I was called'
One of the main forces behind the Loan Closet committee is Elizabeth Botzler Decker, of Baldwin. Bette, as she insists everyone calls her whether she's known you for five decades or five minutes, was a public health nurse for Baltimore County. During her 17-year career, she used the Loan Closet often for patients and knew first-hand what a difference the assistance made to the patient and/or the care giver.
"When I was a nurse, I used the services for patients," Bette recalls. "So when I retired, I was called by the Loan Closet."
Since joining the Loan Closet effort in 1983, Bette has been in control of the treasury, organized lending records and tried to help obtain the most popular medical items her clients need. She now has risen to the rank of chairperson.
The women volunteers at the Loan Closet are all retirement age at least and older (one member is in her 90s). But they make sure the Ninth District Loan Closet is available to help because of a growing need for medical equipment.
And since almost all of the other loan closets have disbanded, more people than ever are using the Towson location. Clients come from all income levels and many different areas of the Baltimore metropolitan region.
No time limit
Most of the clientele hear about the Ninth District Loan Closet by word of mouth, referrals, or they receive the equipment through social workers, physical therapists or visiting nurses who are the actual borrowers.
Many borrowers do so on behalf of aging relatives, whose insurance may not cover the cost of items needed.
"There's no time limit," Bette Decker says. "We just want them to be in use if they're checked out. Some people need them until death and keep them 10 years. You can't pull it out from under them."
The Loan Closet does watch for loss problems resulting from later returns. Often people forget they have the equipment or where it came from so a good wheelchair could wind up with cobwebs.
Bette has set up a card catalog-type tracking system and periodically calls borrowers to make sure the item on loan is still in use or if it can be returned.
"We call every three to four months and inquire," she says. "A lot of times we find out it's not in use and we get it back."
Saves money
"It has helped us immensely," says Betty Johnson, of Ellicott City, who has borrowed walkers and wheelchairs for her 90-year old mother." It has saved us a lot of money.
Betty's mother is in a retirement home now and the constant care facility provides only a few wheelchairs for brief use. Betty uses the Loan Closet's chair during visits to wheel her mom to lunch and around the home.
Bette Botzler Decker contends the Loan Closet helps keep insurance premiums down because people can get items for free instead of charging their insurer, who is turn would calculate that cost in premium rates.
"Even when it is covered, it still reflects back to our premiums,." Bette says. "In the long run, it saves money for everyone."
'A wonderful service'
Some need an item for only a few weeks, such as after breaking a limb. Anne Martin, of Towson, recently borrowed a bathtub bench from the Loan Closet for her son, who suffered a broken leg. She needed one only for three weeks and to purchase one would have cost her $120.
The proprietor of a medical equipment store recommended the Loan Closet to Martin. The volunteers went out of their way to supply her with the needed bench.
"I was very impressed," Anne says. "It's really a wonderful service to the community. They didn't have that particular bench at the time I- came in, but they bought one at that [medical equipment] store. Bette went out of her way. It worked beautifully."
Anne is only sorry she had not heard of the Loan Closet a few years ago when her father needed various equipment like wheelchairs and a hospital bed.
"Medicare paid for it, but this concept makes more sense," she said.
Popular Wheelchairs
Bette and her co-members try to replace old or lost pieces of equipment and to add items to the equipment bank particularly if there is a long waiting list for some device. Wheelchairs are particularly popular these days, says Bette.
The committee launches a major donation drive in the Fall, which brings in about $1,800. Equipment donations come in now and then.
Lorraine Fidler agrees that people should donate unneeded items to the Loan Closet. About a month ago, she saw first hand that too often they don't.
"We had to go to the Cockeysville landfill," recalls Fidler. "I was appalled at the things people had disposed of. wheelchairs, walkers, furniture, trays. People instead should donate their old articles."
D.
Public health roots
The Loan Closet's roots go back 52 years ago when the Ninth District Health Committee emerged to help Baltimore County's public health efforts in the Towson area (Towson is in the Ninth Election District, hence the name.
Today, the Loan Closet has no government ties and receives no county or state funding. This wasn't always the case.
Volunteers in the early days weren't just running a lending service. They supported the many health clinics (in several districts) and clinics by helping with vaccinations, weighing babys, aiding polio families with donated food or clothing, assisting in mass immunizations for measles or with the swine flu vaccination program, coordinating blood drives, etc.
At the same time, volunteers launched the Ninth District Loan Closet. That loan closet and several others were very close to the health centers so that volunteers could work hand-in-hand with public health nurses and get equipment to patients as quickly as possible.
Several homes
Over the years, with more legal restrictions, health care duties were taken away from the volunteers and the services changed. The number of loan closets gradually declined so that today only two exist - Cockeysville and Ninth District.
The Ninth District Loan Closet has had several homes including a spot next to the Towson Health Center, in the old Loch Raven Library on Taylor Avenue, near the Orchard Inn in Towson and now in the old Loch Raven Elementary School. The space is donated by the county.
Today, only five county health centers operate and the Ninth District Health Committee is down to 10 members. Five are active in running the closet, which is open every Tuesday from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. In emergencies, Bette can usually meet someone there.
Volunteers welcomed
Volunteers are tough to come by but that doesn't daunt Bette or the committee. New volunteers are more than welcome to help in any way they can.
"It probably won't take new directions," Bette says. "It's dwindling to older and older people. You're 65 before you start."
But the work will make you feel younger. A poem printed on the back of a Ninth District pamphlet expresses the committee's entire recruitment approach.
"Lend a hand and you will find,
Helping others will bring peace of mind.
Cheering the sick, the ones alone,
Learning how others live,
The work they have to do,
Will make you feel less blue.
So, up you go and say a cheer,
For you are going to be a volunteer."The Ninth District Loan Closet, located at 1801 Glen Keith Boulevard (the former Loch Raven Elementary School), is open only on Tuesdays from 9:30 a.m to 11:30 a.m. Volunteers can be contacted at 410-665-0898 during those hours, or leave a message on the answering machine. The Ninth District Health Committee welcomes and encourages financial and material donations.
Adele Evans is a Phoenix-based freelance writer.
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