Gretchen Derfler, president of the residents council at Cumberland Pointe Care Center, helps Bertha Sobota, vice president, try on a coat. The center will be participating in a Coats for Seniors drive to provide coats for senior citizens in St. Clairsville and Barnesville.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Staff at three Belmont County nursing homes are working to make sure senior citizens aren’t overlooked when it comes to needing warm coats this winter.

Gretchen Derfler, president of the residents council at Cumberland Pointe, said the drive began at its facility in St. Clairsville. It quickly spread to sister facilities Park, also in St. Clairsville, and Emerald Pointe, in Barnesville. The drive runs through Oct. 31.

“We always hear about Coats for Kids in the winter, but seniors seem to be a population that’s put in a corner,” Derfler said. “I’ve noticed over the course of the time here that there’s a lot of seniors that don’t have family members who visit. When they go to doctors’ appointments they’re bundled up in blankets because they don’t have a warm coat.”

She said residents began thinking up options.

“What we’re going to do is contact every responsible party for the resident,” Derfler said. “We have an aid that is going to go through and make sure that each resident has a well-fitting warm winter coat. If they don’t, we’re going to hopefully recycle what does not fit another resident to a resident that it would fit. We’re also asking for help from the responsible parties and the community.”

Facebook posts and other initial efforts quickly yielded several coats. By Sept. 1, there were more than 40 coats at the Cumberland Pointe site.

“We have a surplus of coats that have been left over the course of years here,” Derfler said. “After we clothe every resident in the facility with a warm winter coat, we’re going to donate everything over and above that to the Coat Closet in St. Clairsville.”

Cumberland Pointe Director Carri Rejonis said the goal for her facility was 74 coats, but then the sister facilities took an interest.

“We would like to make sure that we coat those, so we are shooting to raise in between 200 and 300 coats,” Rejonis said. “We’re going to be coating all three facilities, and coating some of the community.”

“I’d like to see at least that,” Derfler said.

Derfler said seniors often are without coats because they live with strained finances.

“You have to understand, when you live in a nursing home and receive Social Security disability and are on Medicare/Medicaid, you have what’s called a patient liability,” she said. “Your patient liability pays toward your care. Say you’ve got $835 a month. Of that, all but $50 goes to your patient liability, and that is basically what you have to take care of yourself on. If you have no family members, no outside support, that $50 has to cover whatever you need over and above what’s supplied by the facility.

“The facility does supply toiletries and things of that nature, and we do have the ability to do clothing if need be for some residents,” Derfler said. “We do have a surplus of clothes that have accumulated over time. Generally, we donate them every six months.”

Rejonis said health-related issues also complicate matters.

“What we had seen was that a lot of people had coats for a couple of years and either lost weight or gained weight, so we thought it would be a good idea, if the coats don’t fit, to recycle the coats that way, kind of like a Coat Closet to help everybody out.”

Rejonis said many people are proud and do not want to admit their needs.

“A lot of times they don’t tell their families,” she said. “Their families will call and say ‘Do you need something?’ or families will come in to visit. They’re inside, so they don’t put a coat on. You don’t realize it until you go out for appointments and things like that.”

Derfler said she also had lost weight after a medical procedure. She gave away her clothes that no longer fit, while other residents gave clothes to her.

“You do have a lot of change and fluctuation in weight with residents of a nursing home,” she said. “There’s just such a need I see with the residents who don’t have family members. It’s hard, and they are proud. We’ve had residents who went through the Depression.”

Rashelle Schnarr, marketing clinical liaison for the facilities, said this was a grassroots initiative and the sites were happy to lend a hand.

“Nursing homes are changing so much,” she said. “Residents are arriving and want to participate and do things with their communities…We have some really great resident councils and people who constantly volunteer…All three groups are actively working together to get coats donated.”

For details or to donate, call Cumberland Pointe at 740-695-2500; Park Health Center at 740-695-4915; and Emerald Pointe Center at 740-425-5400.