Endya Wallace choked back tears when she talked about losing the services of social worker Rebecca Sexauer, a case manager with the Linkages program.

“God knows, if I lose Becky I don’t know what I’ll do,” said Wallace, 55. “She keeps me sane.”

Wallace is one of 80 people in Ventura County’s Linkages case management program— adults who are ineligible for similar vital services under other programs and are at risk of nursing home placement.

But with the stroke of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s pen last month approving the state budget closing a deficit of more than $26 billion, Linkages was among the social service casualties.

Last year, the state cut funding to Linkages, and the program was forced to reduce its number of clients from 100 to 80. On Oct. 1, the $201,463ayear program will be eliminated.

The Ventura County Area Agency on Aging has operated Linkages, designed to keep frail and disabled adults out of nursing facilities and in their homes, for 10 years. The program had been paid for entirely by the state, which will be reducing funding to the Agency on Aging by $326,140.  

Monica Neece, supervising care manager for the program, said it’s difficult to quantify all the services Linkages social workers do on behalf of clients, their caregivers and families because each case is unique. But services include checking on clients’ welfare at least once a month, helping them manage finances, arranging for transportation to medical appointments and securing medical equipment.

Clients have included adults who’ve fallen and suffered a traumatic brain injury and are unable to work or perform everyday functions and seniors “not poor enough” to receive Medi-Cal benefits. Others are young adults incapacitated by a car accident or a catastrophic illness. Often Linkages clients are too sick to get out of bed or have arthritis so severe they’re unable to use the phone.

Wallace, who lives in lowincome senior housing in Oxnard, has a rare form of sickle-cell anemia. She’s suffered a stroke, develops blood clots in her lungs and has two heart valves that aren’t functioning properly. She spends most days in bed and is connected to an oxygen tank 24 hours a day.

In the two years that she has been Wallace’s case manager, Sexauer has helped her find legal assistance for housing issues, acquire a power chair, secure free bus transportation, locate food when she runs short and navigate the confusing waters of government-assisted housing. Sexauer calls Wallace every week to check on her welfare.

“She’s my lifeline—if I have a problem, I call her and ask her what to do,” Wallace said. “She’s really worried about me, God bless her.”

The loss of Linkages will ripple beyond the 80 people receiving the program’s services and affect their families and caregivers, the 200 or so people on the waiting list and the dozens of other social service agencies in the county that will feel the pressure to fill the loss.

Neece said they don’t yet know what will become of Linkages clients; there aren’t enough beds in the county’s nursing facilities for them all.

The Agency on Aging also lost state funding for the Alzheimer’s Day Care Resource Center at Senior Concerns in Thousand Oaks.

Senior Concerns President Carol Freeman said the $68,000 grant from the agency for Alzheimer’s patients represents one-tenth of their budget for adult day-care services. The nonprofit also depends on fundraising events. The board of directors didn’t expect the state budget cuts to mean the loss of the entire grant, Freeman said.

In the coming weeks, board members will determine how the loss will affect the program. Will they reduce the number of clients they serve, cut back program hours or lower the income level for scholarship eligibility?

“I truly do not have an answer,” Freeman said.

Adult day-care fees are based on income. The nonprofit Senior Concerns gives $220,000 annually in scholarships.

About 95 percent of the seniors who attend an adult daycare program at Senior Concerns have Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia, Freeman said.

Last fiscal year the grant paid for 159 people with Alzheimer’s to attend 12,207 days at Senior Concerns. The money also allowed 258 individuals to benefit from support groups at Senior Concerns for families and caregivers of people with Alzheimer’s and paid for community education programs that include a speaker series.

“The program will continue,” Freeman promises. “I just don’t have my answer for what it will be.”

Because of the state cuts, FOOD Share will lose a $20,000 grant from the Agency on Aging for its Brown Bag program.

FOOD Share delivers bags of supplemental groceries each week to 32 sites throughout the county, feeding 1,626 seniors 60 and older.

Director Bonnie Weigel said the nonprofit will ask the community to step up and help.

“The Brown Bag program will continue,” she said. “We just say it’s the right thing to do; we’ll figure out funding, but we’re not going to stop the service.”