Grant for Elder Care Center
By Bob Pascasio
While news that Chambers County Public Hospital District #1 has received a grant is not necessarily news; as the District has a long history of identifying and acquiring grants to support health care delivery in Chambers County, this particular grant is, according to Board Chair Tommy Willcox. “We realized early on that one of the more significant losses for our area from Hurricane Ike were the programs and services targeted to the seniors in our community,” shared Willcox.
With the storm having damaged and closed both the Anahuac Healthcare Center and the Joy Center “we’re not aware of any full-time programs dedicated to the seniors in mid-county,” according to District CEO Bob Pascasio. Willcox continued that this was also a major point of discussion and concern during the post-Ike FEMA facilitated ESF 14 project efforts, chaired locally by Anahuac Mayor Guy R. Jackson.
“Several of the projects identified as priorities, according to the citizens who participated, were those that addressed the needs of the elderly in our communities,” shared Jackson.
With the movement in the health care industry to keep folks “out of the hospital” a key element of current health care reform discussions, it is incumbent upon the health care industry to identify, support and/or develop initiatives that accomplish that goal.
“With all that in mind, we (the District Board) told Pascasio we needed to identify a way to restore at least the basic services,” Willcox continued. Enter the Social Services Block Grant program, managed in the Chambers County Area by the Houston-Galveston Area Council.
The purpose of the Title XX Social Services Block Grant Program is to provide assistance to furnish services directed at one or more of five broad goals including: achieving or maintaining self-sufficiency, including reduction or prevention of dependency, and, preventing or reducing inappropriate institutional care by providing for community-based care, home-based care, or other forms of less intensive care.
The District applied for funding from H-GAC; which already supports the Senior Citizens Project sponsored by the First United Methodist Church in Anahuac, to develop a program.
Including constructing a new facility, to support these initiatives in Chambers County, the District was awarded a $1.6 million grant this past October.
The proposed project will include, among other potential offerings: daily meal service, out-patient programs, health screenings, wellness programs, fitness and socialization activities and adult “day care” and respite programs.
“We were glad to be able to facilitate the return of these needed services to the area,” advised H-GAC Chief Operating Officer Steve Howard, “and we look forward to working with the District to insure the success of the program.”
The District Board recently authorized Pascasio to finalize arrangements with an architect to design the project, so that work can begin as soon as possible to meet a program mandated deadline of September 30, 2010 to be functional.
Pascasio and the Board would like to invite any and all interested parties to a meeting at the Bayside Community Hospital Board room at 6:00 pm the evening of Monday, February 15th to discuss the project, and provide input.
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