Community Care, Inc. and United Community Center partner to provide fully integrated, culturally sensitive health care on Milwaukee’s South Side
Two Milwaukee-area nonprofit organizations are coming together to provide comprehensive, all-inclusive care for older adults in need on Milwaukee’s South Side. The partnership will help vulnerable older adults get the medical and long-term care services necessary to live as independently as possible and reduce the need of moving into a nursing facility.
Community Care, Inc., a care organization that specializes in helping older adults and adults with disabilities live independently, and the United Community Center, a comprehensive social services agency dedicated to helping families on the south side of Milwaukee, have entered into a partnership to bring high-quality care and an extraordinary cultural experience to older adults with long-term care needs.
Under the partnership, the United Community Center will open its Adult Day Center on Ninth Street to Milwaukee County residents who are enrolled in Community Care’s PACE program, also known as the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly.
“The United Community Center is the premier provider of family and social services for the Hispanic community, and we’re excited to give our PACE participants the opportunity to experience this great organization and its outstanding programs,” said Kenneth Munson, CEO of Community Care. “This partnership is an ideal match – it optimizes our strength as a national leader in delivering personalized, high-quality coordinated care and the United Community Center’s strong reputation of providing outstanding cultural programs to residents in the Milwaukee area.”
While the United Community Center specializes in Hispanic cultural programming, the center is open to older adults of any ethnic background.
“We are proud to partner with Community Care and the opportunity to provide our services to more elderly in Milwaukee. Our goal is to help families keep their elderly family member at home, and not in an institution. With a fully bilingual staff and a program that focuses on cultural sensitivity and a wide range of activities where clients can enjoy socialization and stimulation, we feel confident we can provide a unique benefit to clients of the PACE program, while also saving money long term through preventative care and services,” stated UCC’s Executive Director Ricardo Diaz. “We hope this is just the beginning of a partnership that will allow us to ensure our most vulnerable elderly, no matter their ethnicity, receive appropriate and effective care.”
PACE, which is funded by Medicare and Medicaid, is an innovative model of care that bundles long-term care services, medical care, and prescription medicine into one fully-integrated program. Each PACE participant is joined by a team of health care professionals who work together to ensure all long-term care and medical needs are met so the participant can live as independently as possible, many times in their own home instead of a nursing facility.
The partnership is the first of its kind for Community Care, which operates Medicare- and Medicaid-funded long-term care programs in 14 Wisconsin counties. The Community Care PACE program is available to residents of Milwaukee and Waukesha counties.
To celebrate the partnership, the United Community Center and Community Care will be holding an open house at the United Community Center Adult Day Center (1028 S 9th St., Milwaukee) onNov. 20 from 10:30 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. The event is free and open to the public.
For more information about the PACE program, visit communitycareinc.org or contact the Aging Resource Center of Milwaukee County at 414-289-6874.
About Community Care:
Headquartered in Brookfield, Wis., Community Care, Inc. is a private nonprofit organization that serves the long-term care and health needs of more than 10,000 older adults and adults with physical or intellectual disabilities. Founded in 1977, Community Care is the only Wisconsin managed care organization to offer all three programs of Family Care, Family Care Partnership and Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE). The organization provides care in the 14 eastern Wisconsin counties of Calumet, Fond du Lac, Kenosha, Manitowoc, Milwaukee, Outagamie, Ozaukee, Racine, Sheboygan, Walworth, Washington, Waukesha, Waupaca and Winnebago. For more information about Community Care, visit www.communitycareinc.org.
About the United Community Center Adult Day Center:
The United Community Center (UCC) provides programs to Hispanics and near South side residents of all races and ages in education, cultural arts, recreation, community development and health and human services in an effort to help individuals achieve their potential by focusing on cultural heritage as a means of personal development.
The UCC Adult Day Center/Latino Geriatric Center opened in its new space in March of 2007. Designed in conjunction with the Institute on Aging and Environment at the School of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the center encompasses functionality to enhance the quality of life of the elderly clients. The Center welcomes it’s clients, the majority of which are Latino elderly suffering from Alzheimer’s or dementia into an authentic Latin American plaza including a central plaza fountain, a walking path, and an abundance of natural light with a feature called “clerestory,” a row of windows above the normal ceiling height that allows natural light to fill the space. The facility has been designed and divided into three homes accessible off the main plaza. Each “home” has a fully operational kitchen, including spaces similar to the dining and living rooms of a home. This design concept helps addresses the challenge many elderly have when making the transition from their home to an institutional environment during the day. This daily transition becomes easier when the two environments are similar. Furthermore the ‘homes’ design promotes the ability for staff to conduct therapy and other activities focused on helping the elderly maintain their abilities to continue the activities of daily living.
Daily activities at the UCC Adult Day Center are specially designed to create a “homelike” environment for all clients in order to restore their dignity and establish friendships, as well as to foster independence and satisfaction. Clients at the Adult Day Center discover previously unrecognized talents and develop new skills through an assortment of diverse activities from crafts, to field trips, dance, parties, games, cooking, and much more!
