MATCH-UP Services: Medical Escort

MATCH-UP medical escort volunteers accompany elderly and disabled adults to medical appointments throughout Boston and Brookline. Escorts provide personalized, caring support throughout the trip: offering helping hands and arms when mobility is an issue, navigating confusing hospitals and medical facilities, helping understand the instructions of doctors and nurses, and even accompanying the person to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription.

Many elders are isolated and have no one to help them get to their doctors' appointments. Family members may live too far away and some have no family at all. Friends may be just as old and unsteady as the elders themselves. And as day surgery has become the norm for many procedures, a large number of seniors or disabled adults must cancel their appointments when there is no one to accompany them home from the hospital. This may leave the health of an already frail elder further at risk.

MATCH-UP medical escorts are there every step of the way when an elder needs to get to a medical appointment. "Thank you so much for helping me get to the hospital," an older woman says. "I have no family and most of my friends are also in poor health."

"You saved my life," says another older woman who had to take her brother to radiation and chemotheraphy treatments. Exhausted and not in very good health herself, she called MATCH-UP. She told us that the relief provided by our medical escort that day made a world of difference.

Not surprisingly, the need for our medical escort service is strong and persistent. In FY07 we filled a total of 531 requests for round-trip assistance.

Medical escort volunteers are greatly needed, especially those who can give time during the day. No car is necessary. To find out more about our medical escort service, please call us at 617-482-1510.

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