May 18, 2017 – Christine Bordelon
Elderly residents who live in parts of Jefferson Parish, including Kenner, Jefferson, River Ridge, the West Bank neighborhoods of Gretna, Lafitte and Marrero and Orleans, St. Bernard and Plaquemines civil parishes, can now access comprehensive health care services through PACE Greater New Orleans, a ministry of Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans.
PACE, which stands for the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly, has been in New Orleans since 2007 offering an alternative to nursing home care by providing an adult day center – the Shirley Landry Benson Adult Day Health Center (the former St. Cecilia Church) in Bywater.
PACE offers individualized care plans that include preventive primary care, acute- and long-term physician care, medications, meals and nutrition planning, rehabilitation therapy, personal care and activities as well as in-home care, social services, caregiver support and even home modifications. Transportation from home to the center is provided to PACE clients.
PACE Senior Services was approved in August 2016 to expand its service area with the opening of a day care center at Hope Haven in Marrero, also inside a renovated former church. In February, services reopened two days a week.
Additional zip codes served
Elderly residents age 55 or older or those who qualify for nursing-home level care in Kenner and the West Bank who live in zip codes 70037, 70056, 70058, 70062, 70065, 70067, 70072, 70094 and 70123 can now access PACE’s all-inclusive care model two days a week – Tuesday and Thursday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
“As our census grows and needs and demands grow, we will add more days,” interim director Michelle Robinson said. “Hope Haven is used as an alternate care site for PACE participants in these new zip codes.”
PACE’s focus has always been on prevention and wellness with quality-based and quality-driven outcomes, said Robinson, who has 20-plus years of nursing home administration experience.
“It’s such a great addition for the West Bank, and it is a much-needed service,” Robinson said, adding how it is top-quality care offered at much lower cost than nursing home care. She cited a National PACE study that showed how its all-inclusive care model is 35 percent more cost effective than nursing home placement. She also quoted a story in the April 29, 2017, Advocate that said participants who age in place tend to live longer than those in a nursing home.
PACE GNO can accept a maximum of 193 clients. Robinson said they are currently at 175 on both sides of the Mississippi River.
Read the original Clarion Herald story about expansion of senior care.
