Independent Senior “Housing With Services”
As more elders chose to “age in place” in their
own homes or apartments, senior housing
operators are working to ensure that residents
have access to the appropriate services.
LeadingAge members across the country are
designing and implementing new “Housing
With Services” (or “Housing Plus Services”)
models that help residents age safely, with
access to a variety of wellness services. Several
of these new models were featured at a
session at the LeadingAge New York Annual
Conference and Exposition in Saratoga, on May
25. The session was titled: Housing With
Services in New York State.
Among the most well known of these new
initiatives is based in nearby Vermont. SASH
– Support And Services at Home – provides
“care coordinators” in combination with a
“Wellness Nurse” and aims to improve health
outcomes and reduce costs. SASH was created
by Cathedral Square Corporation (CSC), a
LeadingAge member based in Burlington that
owns and operates senior housing around
the state. Kim Fitzgerald, the CEO of CSC,
participated in the session. “We’re glad that
there has been so much interest in SASH in other
states, such as New York. The model of course
must be tweaked because different states have
different laws and regulations. But the concept
is the same – healthier residents who stay with
us longer, who have better health outcomes, and
documented cost savings,” she said.
– Selfhelp Active Services for Aging Model.
Mohini Mishra, the program director for
SHASAM, participated in the panel. She
described the importance of encouraging
residents to take advantage of the many
programs and services available through
community providers that will help them to age
well in their homes.
Sandra Allen-Simms is director of resident
services for Flushing House, and also
participated on the panel discussion. Ms.
Allen-Simms described how Flushing House
proactively works with residents to ensure that
they take advantage of services, especially home
health providers, while ensuring residents’
independence and freedom of choice. She
said that Senior housing organizations in
New York and around the country have been
implementing new approaches to keeping
residents safely in their homes, in the hope of
avoiding moving to higher levels of care. But
funding opportunities for such programming
have not yet been made widely available,
particularly for developments that serve low and
moderate-income elders.
“Resident service coordinators in senior housing
have been making magic happen for decades,
even though they have never been adequately
funded,” said John Broderick, LeadingAge NY’s
senior policy analyst for housing. “Now, we’re
learning that with more emphasis on wellness
and healthy aging, these service coordinators
can keep people out of emergency rooms and
prevent unnecessary entry into nursing homes.
This saves money for our health system and
improves quality of life.”
Selfhelp Community Services in New York
City has another model known as SHASAM
leadingageny.org 38