FAVIL WEST

Co-founder and president

The Foundation Assisting Seniors

In the 15 years since he co-founded the Foundation Assisting Seniors with Chuck Davis, Favil West has made a significant difference in the lives of many people.

The nonprofit organization assists the senior community in times of illness, recovery, confinement at home, coping with loss of a loved one and other senior challenges, as well providing assistance with everyday tasks such as household maintenance and transportation.

One facet that stands out is the Foundation’s HowRU program, a free service that provides a daily call to subscribers to ensure that they are well, bringing peace of mind to seniors and their families. Recently, HowRU received endorsements from fire and police chiefs in Henderson and North Las Vegas.

• West continues to direct several committees to ensure all aspects of the lives that he serves are taken care of. These include:• The Equipment Committee, which maintains and delivers an inventory of durable medical equipment for short-term loan.• The Home Maintenance Committee, which provides minor home maintenance services for those unable to safely perform them.• The Transportation Committee, which drives seniors to health service appointments or the grocery store.• The Home Assistance Committee, which maintains a resource directory with information on fee-based services.“Our accomplishments in 2016 were many,” said West, “however we are most proud of being able to provide services to over 30,000 seniors in Southern Nevada. In addition, we launched the Medication Reminder program, a service that calls seniors to remind them to take their medication.”The increase in people older than 65 caused a growth in assistance requests by more than 10 percent last year, West said. “This presents a challenge for the foundation, in terms of both service and funds, to meet these requests in a timely manner.”Over the past few years, health care, both from a medical and non-medical standpoint, has improved dramatically. “We believe that providing our neighbors with durable medical equipment, transportation and other services often allows them the ability to spend more time in their home and less time in a form of assisted living,” West said. “We still find that in many cases seniors are not given proper respect, and are required to wait long periods of time before seeing their health care provider. Having said that, today we are seeing more doctors, nurses, and facilities become available for the care for seniors.”

  During the months to come, West’s primary focus will be on education. “Seniors are considered the gullible portion of our society, and as such scammers prey upon them,” he said.

  “In order to educate seniors with respect to the various scams that could impact them, the Foundation Assisting Seniors will introduce education seminars that provide information on how to avoid fraud, elder abuse, identity theft, and multiple other issues.”

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