National PACE Association Highlights Returning to the Community from the Nursing Home in New Video

News provided by

Oct 17, 2018, 10:00 ET

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Oct. 17, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Nearly 1.4 million people live in nursing homes today. A large percentage of those people could live at home if they had access to health care and supportive services in the community.

"We need to make enrolling into community-based programs like PACE as easy as being admitted into a nursing home," said Peter Fitzgerald, executive vice president of Public Policy and Strategy at the National PACE Association (NPA). "Too often people find themselves in a nursing home because it is the only way to immediately access the care and services they need."

Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE®) serve people who are certified to need nursing home care, but 95 percent of their enrollees remain in the community. To help PACE grow, NPA launched an initiative called PACE 2.0 so everyone who could benefit from PACE will have access to the program. The initiative aims to increase the number of people served by PACE from approximately 45,000 today to as many as 200,000 by 2028.

Part of the PACE 2.0 initiative is a video series titled "Before I Found PACE," which highlights the success of PACE programs in empowering individuals to live safely in the community. Today, NPA released the eighth video in the series. The video features Phyllis Benning, 66, of Chattooga, TN, who was placed in a nursing home after a stroke. After enrolling in Alexian Brothers Senior Services, a local PACE program, she was able to return to her home and work with the PACE interdisciplinary team to learn to walk again through hard work and determination.

"With the rapidly increasing aging population in this country, we need to quickly grow proven programs like PACE," said Fitzgerald, principal investigator of PACE 2.0. "The stories in our video series illustrate the wide variety of people who find themselves in need and how a flexible program like PACE can support them as they live their lives."

The video testimonials show how PACE positively affects individual lives and provides a personal perspective that goes beyond descriptions of how the model of care works or outcomes data alone. A Medicare and Medicaid program, PACE helps people meet their health care needs in the home and community and at PACE centers instead of going to a nursing home or other care facility.

PACE 2.0 is supported by The John A. Hartford Foundation and West Health to develop and promote innovations in the PACE model of care that allow it to serve more people, expand to new communities, and assist new populations.

The PACE model of care uses an interdisciplinary team approach to provide care to individuals, age 55 and over, who qualify for nursing home care. PACE is a Medicare benefit nationally and a Medicaid benefit in 31 states. It is the most successful model for keeping individuals out of nursing homes and in the community, where they enjoy a higher quality of life, remain connected to the community, and receive care in the most cost-effective way. PACE reduces the costs associated with emergency room visits, unnecessary hospital admissions and long-term nursing home placements.

The John A. Hartford Foundation, based in New York City, is a private, nonpartisan national philanthropy dedicated to improving the care of older adults. A leader in the field of aging and health, the foundation has three areas of emphasis: creating age-friendly health systems, supporting family caregivers, and improving serious illness and end-of-life care. For more information, visit johnahartford.org and follow @johnahartford.

Solely funded by philanthropists Gary and Mary West, West Health is a family of nonprofit and nonpartisan organizations, including the Gary and Mary West Health Institute and Gary and Mary West Foundation, in San Diego, and the Gary and Mary West Health Policy Center in Washington, DC. West Health is dedicated to lowering health care costs and enabling seniors to age in place successfully with access to high-quality, affordable health and support services that preserve and protect their dignity, quality of life, and independence. For more information, westhealth.org and follow @westhealth.

The National PACE Association works to advance the efforts of PACE programs, which coordinate and provide preventive, primary, acute and long-term care services so older individuals can continue living in the community. The PACE model of care is centered on the belief that it is better for the well-being of seniors with chronic care needs and their families to be served in the community whenever possible. For more information, visit www.NPAonline.org and follow @TweetNPA.

SOURCE National PACE Association