Program of Excellence Award
2008 Recipient - Schofield Adult Day Health Care Program
The Schofield Residence Adult Day Health Care Program was launched in April 1987 in response to a growing community need for a middle road between living independently and institutionalization. The Program was located at the Schofield Residence Nursing Facility in the Town of Tonawanda until October 2007. Upon acquiring the Episcopal Church Home & Affiliates Adult Day Health Care Program, Schofield needed a new site that would accommodate the addition of their program clients. The program moved to Sheehan Health Network near Downtown Buffalo in October 2007. This move allows Schofield to offer high quality health care services to an underserved elderly and disabled population in the inner city area.
If Schofield had not acquired Episcopal's program, nearly 150 of their program participants would have been displaced because of a moratorium on new adult day health care program slots in Erie County. Many of these individuals would have gone into nursing homes. This expansion created the largest Adult Day Health Care Program in Upstate New York with the capacity to serve over 200 clients.
This expansion did not happen easily. Schofield's Administration worked diligently to make it possible. In addition, Candice Duffy, Program Director, and her staff worked closely with the Schofield Residence board of directors and administration to secure the approval for the expansion. Candice showed extreme dedication and commitment to the adult day health care registrants under her care during a long transition period as Schofield worked to obtain New York State Department of Health approval to acquire the operating license of the Episcopal Church Home & Affiliates (ECHA) Adult Day Health Care Program. During this period, she held together her team of caring employees under challenging working conditions as they continued to operate the Episcopal program, despite the closure of other services on the former campus at which they were located. Once the approval was secured, physically moving and combining the two different programs was a monumental task. Candice, along with Schofield's Administrator John Malicki ably led a transition team to facilitate the move from Episcopal's space to the newly renovated site at the Sheehan Health Network.
Schofield's Adult Day Health Care Program currently provides care to over 180 frail elders and disabled individuals who otherwise might need nursing home care. The program provides health and rehabilitation services aimed at maintaining or improving the participants everyday functioning. Participants attend on a schedule arranged to meet their individual needs. The program reduces emergency room visits and hospitalizations while also providing education, support and respite for family members who are caregivers.
Located on the Third Floor of Sheehan Health Network, 425 Michigan Avenue in Buffalo, the program provides physical, occupational and speech therapies, nursing care, personal care, case management and other services in a supportive group environment. The Adult Day Health Care program is invaluable to individuals seeking alternatives to nursing home placement. Common diagnoses for people benefiting from the program include strokes, joint replacements, fractures, amputations, arthritis, Parkinson's disease, diabetes, multiple sclerosis and traumatic brain injury.
At the new location, clients benefit from several specialty outpatient clinics on site at Sheehan Health Network, such as primary health, imaging, laboratory, podiatry and dental. Because participants have access to Sheehan's clinics, transportation demands on their care-givers may also diminish. Sheehan is also centrally located, close to downtown Buffalo and major transportation routes, making it possible for Schofield to provide services to a larger geographic base. The program operates a morning and afternoon session on weekdays and one session on Saturdays. We can accommodate 65 individuals in the mornings and 45 in the afternoons and in the Saturday session. Meals as well as snacks are served.
In short, participants benefit from the program in the following ways:
Adult day health care enables them to receive the care they need in a community setting. This can prevent inappropriate or premature nursing home placement.The program provides a coordinated program of services, including restorative therapy as well as socialization and preventive care, in a single setting.It offers the individual an opportunity to be with other people and provides an enriching educational and social experience.The program provides family members' relief from the responsibilities of caregiving.