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Melanie Cole (Host): According to the Institute on Aging, more than 40 million Americans are aged 65+. Seniors often prefer to live at home and remain independent, but healthcare needs can sometimes make that difficult. Life at Lourdes can help. My guest today is Curtis Caldwell. He is an enrollment coordinator for Life at Lourdes. Welcome to the show Curtis. So, what is Life at Lourdes and who is it for?

Curtis Caldwell (Guest): Well thank you so much for having me, Melanie. Life at Lourdes is a program of all-inclusive care for the elderly and just by that name, you can imagine that our program services seniors. For the Life at Lourdes program, a senior begins at age 55. So, any individual that is age 55 years old, lives within the Life at Lourdes service area, is assessed to meet specific level of care criteria and has the objective or the goal to want to continue to live independently in the community; will potentially be a good candidate for the program.

Melanie: How does this program work?

Curtis: Sure, so what we do, we try to assess each of our potential clients and we call them participants, to see where they are medically. Of course, what we do in terms of those assessments, is to see if they need nursing home level of care, because essentially Life at Lourdes is an alternative to a nursing home. The PACE model itself was developed in the mid-70s and when I say PACE, that’s again a program for all-inclusive care for the elderly, developed in the 70s and it was a part of a community that realized that seniors age better when they are able to age in place, in their current living environment and in their current living situation surrounded by family and friends and medical staff that can provide that exemplary care they might need when their medical issues kind of increase. So, what we do in terms of our assessments, we look to see if the client needs assistance with at least three activities of daily living, and if they do and they meet the level of care criteria and they meet the age requirement and they live within the service area; we then are able to provide all of their medically necessary care under one umbrella. So, the benefit of the program for seniors is that one, they are able to stay home, and two, they are able to kind of make – it’s a one stop shop for all the services that they might need to be able to maintain themselves independently while they are living in the community.

Melanie: So Curtis, who contacts you? Is it the loved ones? Is it the senior themselves? How does someone find out?

Curtis: Sure, so it’s a combination of both. A lot of times, we are called by caregivers or even extended caregivers and by that, I mean, it may not be an individual who is personally responsible for the everyday care of the senior. It could be a neighbor who can see that a family is struggling taking care of a loved one. Sometimes, the senior themselves, will give us a call because unfortunately, we deal with a population where you will see a senior is basically fending for themselves and they see that there is maybe this Life at Lourdes bus that they see passing by throughout the community and like I wonder what that is about. So, they will give us a call to just try to get more information about the program and then you have other referrals that come specifically from doctor’s offices or from other medical professionals. But that first initial conversation or that initial contact is done through the enrollment team and we just try to do a quick screening to see if they meet the eligibility criteria and then if they do meet the eligibility criteria; we then move forward with beginning the process for assessing them and enrolling them.

Melanie: Let’s speak a little bit more about the services that Life at Lourdes provides. You mentioned a few of them, but talk about some of the social work or if hospital or nursing home care is needed, how does it all kind of come together?

Curtis: Sure, sure, so part of the initial assessment – it is about a five-person assessment. So, you are dealing with – and this is before they are officially enrolled, so the assessments are completed by our medical staff, so the primary care physician and our nursing staff do an assessment, our social work team does an assessment to see what their social needs are, what kind of assistance they might specifically need in terms of maybe finances or specifics when it comes to who is really helping with making medical decisions for the client and then they are also assessed by physical therapy and occupational therapy. They are assessed by members of our recreation team with the overall objective to try to make sure that the care plan that we make for the client is tailor made to what their specific needs are.

And we also are able to get medical records from any current medical specialists that they have so that we are able to see what specifically it is that the client is dealing with in terms of diagnoses and making sure that the care is coordinated in such a way that it helps to maintain that senior as best as we can and to the best of the senior’s ability to then allow them to maintain the independence in the community. And then what we do throughout the life – or throughout the time that the senior is in the Life program, we are always in the process of doing reassessments. So, every six months, some kind of assessment is going on for that client. So, again, because our program – the goal of the program is to keep them out of a nursing home. We don’t really look to do any kind of placement or anything like that. We try to keep the senior outside of a nursing home for as long as possible and by doing that, we exhaust every resource that we have at our disposal.

So, of course, in addition to the primary care, the medical specialty care and the physical therapy, the occupational therapy, we also have a home care element; where we have an in-home service nurse and we can also assess the client to see if they need a home health aide and the home health aide may do things like assist with meals or do some personal care or do laundry or go shopping for the client and each one of those particular items or areas of a functioning or activity carries with it a certain hour allotment, so that allows us to determine how many hours of home care that they would need. Of course, that is separate from the in-home service nurse, but specifically when it comes to the home health aide; we are able to give that care by depending upon what their needs are.

And then kind of the crown jewel of our program is our medical day center. Now a medical day center is physically where the primary care physician is. There is the physical therapy department that is there as well and then of course, the recreational and the social aspect of it is very important. Because ultimately, we want to deal with the client on or meet them on physical, mental and the social spiritual level as well. So, all of that is kind of housed here at the day center.

Melanie: So, how is Life also for caregivers and family members? Are they involved?

Curtis: Absolutely. What we normally say is that this is a partnership between the participant, the caregiver and Life at Lourdes. We don’t want to completely take away all of the agencies that a client has in their care. And we also don’t or would like to partner with the families so that Life at Lourdes isn’t necessarily overstepping our bounds in terms of overseeing or kind of going past the caregivers.

The program really works best when all three of those elements the participant, the caregiver and Life at Lourdes are able to seamlessly communicate with each other because that really allows for a more cohesive unit overall because it is not just one person kind of calling all the shots and it is just one particular element that is left in the dark with some of the medical care. If we are all able to kind of speak and to talk and to really move towards providing exemplary care for the participant then really, the program works best and ultimately, we try our best to help caregivers to avoid burnout.

Because one of the things, when you are dealing with seniors that is an unfortunate reality is that a lot of times, caregivers take on so much and when they are taking on this extra, I don’t want to say burden, but this extra responsibility of a senior who has this increased medical need; sometimes the caregiver then also neglects their own healthcare. And a lot of times the caregiver will burnout and before you know it, you have a caregiver who then is no longer able to provide care for the senior either because their medical needs have increased or maybe even worse, but if we can – each of us can play a part and it can be that seamless and that cohesive unit between the participant, the caregiver and Life at Lourdes; that really is where the program works best.

Melanie: So true, absolutely so true. Now one of the things that the family members and or the senior might worry about getting involved in Life at Lourdes is who pays for this? Explain a little bit about how the payment situation works.

Curtis: Great question. So, our program is funded through Medicaid, Medicare or private pay. Now Medicaid, I normally say is our primary funding source, meaning that if a client is on Medicaid and it is a specific Medicaid that we cover, it is either PACE Medicaid, all the services that our program offers is covered at 100%. If a client only has Medicare and they don’t have Medicaid, then we will look at possibly moving forward with the private pay option but for most of the participants that we have and right now we have about 224 participants currently enrolled in the program and over the lifespan of our program, which has been open since May of 2008; we have probably had I would either say well over 350 participants and of all of that time that we have been in this program, only roughly about 5 participants have done the private pay route. The rest of them are on Medicaid.

So, a lot of times, we will get calls from individuals for seniors who currently do not have Medicaid. So, what we do is we look to see if Medicaid would be an option for them and for our specific designation of Medicaid, a senior would need to make less than $2205 of gross monthly income and have less than $2000 in assets. Now sometimes, those income and asset thresholds do change. Of course, that is a state regulation. So, we of course, try to educate the individual on those standards and if we can assist with helping them to apply for Medicaid by walking them through the Medicaid application process; we certainly do that. But ultimately, the Medicaid application is done through the Board of Social Services, so after a certain extent, it is out of our hands. If we can try to provide the education and the applications and try to guide the participant or the caregivers through that process, we definitely will do that. But Medicaid, if you have Medicaid, the program is covered at 100%.

Melanie: So, wrap it up for us Curtis. What a wonderful program and thank you for all your great work. Explain to the listeners a little bit about – you know just kind of give a wrap up about Life at Lourdes, where it is located and what you really want them to know about this amazing program for seniors.

Curtis: Sure, so the Life at Lourdes program, we are located in Pennsauken, New Jersey 2475 McClellan Avenue Pennsauken, New Jersey. Zip code is 08109. I have been a part of the Life program for about four and a half years and what really moves me and excites me about the program is some of the great work – all of the great work that our various staff members provide to our clients. I’m actually looking at a photograph of one of our participants right now who has had some trials and some tribulations. She is one of our fan favorites here. But just knowing her story prior to when she came to the program, not really having a whole lot of family, but then by coming into the Life at Lourdes Program; all the services that we were able to provide to keep her smiling and to provide for all of the care that she needs. It is really a beautiful program and it really is the wave of the future.

These types of programs are a way the seniors can continue to be active and continue to maintain their independence because a lot of times, you will see when that’s taken away, you will see that seniors decline much more rapidly than they would otherwise. So, what I normally say to folks is if my grandparents were alive and they were in an area where a PACE program like Life at Lourdes was available; certainly, a program like this would give me great confidence that the senior was getting great care and that they were going to be covered throughout the duration of their lifetime. So, if you are looking for a program that would give exemplary care to your loved one, or looking for a program that you will feel comfortable with your loved one being taken care of. You definitely want to give a look to the Life at Lourdes Program. We will be more than happy to help you.

Melanie: Thank you so much. It is really wonderful program and great information. For enrollment information and to learn more about Life at Lourdes you can call 856-675-3675. That’s 856-675-3675. Or you can go to www.lourdesnet.org . This is Melanie Cole. You are listening to Lourdes Health Talk. Thanks so much for listening.