neighborhood news
Edenbridge PACE Center Open at Skyland Program Helps Ward 7 and 8 Seniors Age at Home by Elizabeth O’Gorek
PACE
PACE participant Edith Ann Tate with Edenbridge PACE Executive Director Amanda Davis.
F
ive days a week, 68-year-old Edith Ann Tate comes to PACE Center. She has lunch, sees her doctor, plays games and works on her art. She colors intricate images in her books and, on Wednesdays, paints in watercolor. That’s a real help with her fine motor skills, she tells me. “You know, I have problems,” she confides. “My hands shake; and soon, I just can’t write, really.” She gets therapy for that, too. But what she really loves is hanging out, Tate said, as she paused play during a card game with friends. She’s dressed to socialize, on trend in a vintage GAP T-shirt tucked into a maxi skirt and topped with matching red hat and blazer, happy not to be stuck at home. “I come five days a week,” Tate said. “Because you know, I get bored sitting at home.” The PACE Center at Skyland Town Center provides everything Tate could want, including social activity, medical visits, laundry, meals, transportation to and from the center and her home. And she doesn’t pay out of pocket for any of it. 32
E a s t o f t h e R i v er D C N e w s . c o m
Tate has been a participant in the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) Center offered by Edenbridge Health since March 1. The Edenbridge PACE Center at Skyland (2211 Town Center Dr. SE) won’t have its official ribbon-cutting until April 11, but the PACE team is already working to support seniors aging in place in Wards 7 and 8. About 20 seniors are currently receiving services at the new center, which opened in March. Executive Director Amanda Davis said that number is expected to increase “slowly but exponentially” each month until it reaches capacity, somewhere close to 300. Edenbridge is the only PACE provider in the District. The program is specifically designed to serve eligible participants in Ward 7 and 8. PACE integrates Medicare and Medicaid benefits, making beneficiaries eligible for a wider array of services. The PACE interdisciplinary team partners with participants, their families and the community to manage and support the individual’s specific medical, therapeutic and social needs, helping them age safely while remaining in their home. The program becomes whatever they need: recreation planner, transportation, social circle, insurer, medical provider and pharmacy.
The Center
At Skyland, they’ve got the space to do it and do it well. The Edenbridge PACE Center is 15,000 square feet —Davis said the first PACE clinic she worked at was about the size of the day room in the new facility. As you might expect, the center includes a state-of-the-art health clinic
with offices, accessible exam rooms, lab and treatment rooms. But when you walk past reception, your first sight is a lounge with fireplace. Glance through the open doors off the lounge, and you can see into the day room, where a small group plays cards. Yesterday, recreational therapist Charles Bond, the center’s “Charles in Charge,” organized a sip-and-paint with sparkling cider, and held a meeting of the “green thumb club.” There’s also a rehab room and gymnasium, with full-time physical and occupational therapists. There is a steam kitchen where staff set out the hot meals received from a local catering company, Pinky’s E.A.T.S. Elsewhere, there’s a transportation center (they have their own bus and another arrives next month), a laundry room, personal care room with accessible showers and several rooms of various sizes for conferences, quiet time and relaxing.
The Program
It’s a lot to offer, but participants don’t have to come to the center to benefit: Davis said that everything that is available to PACE participants on site is also available to them at home, from meals and therapy to home care and even dental care. Because the PACE program is both insurer and provider, they are able to assess an individual’s needs and then meet them without the usual limits, Davis said. For instance, if medical staff determine there is a need for therapy every day, they will get it; or if a resident needs a shower chair, that will be provided. That’s one of the ways Edenbridge PACE differs from other PACE centers, Davis said. The program allows practi-
Physical therapist Dr. Shekelia Hines in the rehab gym at the Skyland Center.
tioners to work to their fullest. “Coming from a hospital, operators only are restricted to a narrow scope of duties,” Davis said. “When you come to PACE, you really get to problem-solve and think bigger. And that’s what PACE allows— you get to think bigger. And we do that well here.” Reverend Kenderick E. Curry of Pennsylvania Avenue Baptist Church chairs the PACE Center Community Advisory Community. He said the Edenbridge PACE Center is a game-changer. “The impact of [their] being in this community is tremendous,” Curry said. He pointed out that residents of Wards 7 and 8 have less access to medical care and grocery stores than those living across the river; they are also more than a year away from the opening of the new Cedar Hill Regional Medical Center. “I believe this is what’s needed to keep those who are closer to poverty and most vulnerable,” Curry said, “as well as