Adviser LeadingAge New York Summer 2015 July 2015 | Page 37

Total Senior Care
Kelly A. Dickerson, communication, information and marketing director

Q. Please provide a brief
description of your BIP
innovation grant project.

Q. Specifically, what worked?
And what didn’t work?

Dickerson: Total Senior Care

difficult finding appropriate staffing than
we had anticipated. Adult day center
staff work closely with participants, so
you want to make sure you have the
right people. They need to be cheerful,
helpful, empathetic and love working
with the elderly. These locations are in
very rural areas, so there is not a large
applicant pool.

received a BIP grant to help with
establishment of adult social day
programs in Gowanda, Cattaraugus
County, and Wellsville, Allegany
County. Both are in rural areas, with
limited services for the frail elderly.

Q. What were the goals and
objectives of the project?
Dickerson: The goals and objectives
were all aligned to successfully open
adult day centers. This included buying
equipment, finding and training staff and
marketing the program.

Q. Overall, would you say
that you met the goals and
objectives? Please explain.
Dickerson: We have met our goals
for the Gowanda site. It opened in May
and we celebrated with a grand opening
on June 12. Enrollment is still building,
but we aren’t concerned that we won’t
meet the target. Our Wellsville site will
open last this summer, as was planned.

Dickerson: It was a little more

Q. What are your plans for
sustainability of the project?
Dickerson: We absolutely believe
the program is sustainable through
use of the program by our Program of
All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly, the
Veterans Administration, private pay
and other organizations who provide
services to the frail elderly.

Q. If you had it to do over,
what would you h ave done
differently?
Dickerson: It took a long time to
get the actual contract signed by all
necessary state officials. That shortened
our timeline to get everything done.

The state changed its system of contract
approvals and notifications, which
we didn’t know. Next time I would
schedule a weekly reach out to the
state comptroller’s to have a better
understanding of where the contract was
in the approval process.

Q. If the State asked you what
it should do next, what would
you say?
Dickerson: We would love for the
state to provide capital funding for
expansion of the PACE program. The
BIP grant didn’t allow for any “bricks
and mortar.” Finding funding for
construction costs is difficult.

Q. What would you recommend
to colleagues given your
experience with this BIP grant?
Dickerson: We were fortunate to have
a wonderful grant officer at NYSDOH
that handled our project. I would
recommend that other organizations
develop cordial relationships with their
assigned person. They can help you
solve problems and steer you in the
right direction. I really felt our grant
officer wanted us to succeed.

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