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CCM Medical Practice Assistant Gleny Rosario (left) with CCM member Dieudonne St. Fort at the CCM Rockaway site.
With over two decades of experience, CCM, a member of the Beth Abraham Family of Health Services, is nationally recognized for its scope and innovation of long-term care services for chronically ill and disabled adults. The company now operates 19 centers throughout the NYC area.
The PACE program serves those 55 years of age or older who are able to live safely at home, avoiding more costly nursing home services. The program integrates preventive, acute, and long-term care services in a local day care setting with controlled costs.
“We’re like a nursing home without walls, allowing frail, elderly, or disabled members who would otherwise require nursing home care to stay in the community as long as possible and receive high quality, comprehensive care,” explained CCM Rockaway Parkway Site Director Erika Bentley. “We want people to be out functioning in the community, enjoying a wholesome life, and feeling better because they’re at home.”
This long-term health care program provides members on-site access to a medical team of doctors, nurses, social workers, and physical and occupational therapists. Services include 24-hour emergency care, transportation from home to the center or other outside care appointments, and access to nursing home care.
“In this welcoming environment, our members can receive on-site medical care, participate in stimulating social and recreational activities in the day health center and make new friends, all under one roof - a huge benefit for the elderly,” Bentley added.
CCM Rockaway Parkway offers an array of therapeutic recreational activities, such as Tai Chi, yoga, fine arts instruction, skilled beadwork, dance programs, and Wii games. Its day health center also has staff members who speak Creole, Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin, and other Asian dialects.
“Having people on staff who can speak the same language as our members makes a big difference in our ability to interact and communicate with them,” said Bentley. “We have a deaf-mute member and the staff is learning sign language to better assist her.”
Members enjoy nutritious meals that meet personal dietary needs, including kosher foods, provided by the Center for Nursing Rehabilitation services in Brooklyn.
Three recreational therapists design daily activities to meet body, mind and spiritual needs.
Through rehabilitation and maintenance exercises, physical therapists attempt to improve members’ ability to function as independently as possible as, for example, with stroke victims.
The center is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, but there’s an on-call nurse and doctor 24 hours a day. With members’ records at hand, the medical staff might handle the issue on the phone, order a home visit, or make a hospital referral.
On September 24, Comprehensive Care Management officially opened its first PACE Center in Queens, located at 11-40 Seneca Avenue in Ridgewood.
“Having medical care and therapeutic recreation, along with stimulating social activities and deliciously prepared food in one facility is a huge benefit for the elderly,” said CCM Seneca Site Director Karen Humphrey.
The multi-ethnic membership is served by Albanian, Chinese, and Spanish, interpreters and a staff with a knowledge of Russian and Polish.
There’s on-site fully-equipped clinic and treatment rooms. “If a member hasn’t been eating, has diarrhea, feels faint or appears dehydrated, a doctor or nurse can take vital signs and treat her in bed with an IV,” explained Humphrey. “”If antibiotics are needed, the nurse can administer them without sending the member to the hospital.”
In addition to addressing their medical needs, CCM Seneca offers members an opportunity to socialize through an array of recreational activities, such as origami, modified baseball, dancing, and multi-ethnic celebrations in which members talk about their culture.
“What makes us unique is the intense level of team coordination demonstrated at morning meetings,” said Liza Wu, Day Health Center Manager. “The recreational/ therapeutic activities are targeted to members’ physical, social and emotional needs.”
For example, a shy Alzheimer patient was socially isolated and unable to sleep; unhappy with himself and a burden to his wife. With sensitive team treatment, confidence-building measures, and medication, his life turned around and recently he even began to dance. Now, his wife can leave him at the center for the day to take brief trips.
“We work on maintaining members functioning level so the condition doesn’t deteriorate,” emphasized Wu. “Just sitting home alone wasn’t good for him, so we provided the stimulation for him to rejoin society.”
Wu added that family and primary caregivers play an essential role in the members’ overall well-being. She said that caregiver support group sessions are high on the center’s agenda.
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