Community Programs
Our Programs
The United Yokefellow Ministries,
its affiliates and partners, are addressing a critical need
in today’s population — the care and dignity of senior
citizens and disabled persons, without massive health care
expenditures. The UYM program achieves this through
providing a number of programs offered at reasonably low
cost as well as shared housing and services provided to the
constituents by peers of the same age. Thus, activity,
employment and services performed by other senior citizens
allow the costs of service delivery to be minimized by all
stakeholders, including the health care system.
The
main purpose of the housing program is to obtain and convert single
family and multi-family homes acquired through a Foreclosure Solutions
Program into shared housing for seniors. Under the program format, all
residents have a safe, comfortable environment whereby independence in
the community is maintained and preserved for as long as practical
utilizing a “together everybody wins” mentality.
Primary objectives of the program include providing safe and affordable
housing structures for seniors and disabled adults on low income
(Section 8); to enable these individuals to live in a safe, comfortable
living environment while remaining independent in the community for as
long as practical; to create employment opportunities for and in our
targeted segment; and to create a better sense of community and care for
our aging population while working toward better elder care while
reducing governmental costs.
Program Summary
The
“Be Safe At Home” (BSAH) Maintenance and Support Program is an
unmatched, high quality, comprehensive home and personal safety
management program with special emphasis on prevention through outreach
representatives and handypersons. BSAH empowers seniors to maintain
control over their surroundings, and in effect, their lives. This
control leads to greater confidence, independence, self-satisfaction and
self-worth, thereby contributing to peace of mind and marketable
improved overall health.
The
“Be Safe At Home” Program is comprised of the following services:
24/7
Personal Emergency Response (PERS) – This system provides our clients
with a valuable tool in the form of a button (worn as a pendant or on a
wrist band) that when pressed (from anywhere in the home) activates a
communication unit that allows them to speak directly to a specially
trained, In-touch attendant. Once the system is activated, the attendant
views all of the client’s emergency information immediately from their
computer screen making it possible for them to contact EMS and/or the
client’s personal emergency contacts.
a)
Social Companionship – As an add-on feature to the PERS system, our
companionship service enables important social interaction with a
specially trained In-touch attendant. Clients are encouraged for any
reason, including companionship, safety concerns and linkage to health
and social service providers or emergency services, to make a daily call
to the monitoring center by pressing the pendant button.
b)
24/7 Medication Reminding & Monitoring Service – Also available as an
add-on feature to the PERS system, is a daily monitoring system which
notifies the person when to take a specific medication prescribed by
their physician; monitored by specially trained, In-touch attendants.
“Keeping In-touch” Senior Letter – This letter is directed to our
seniors as an "Advice for Seniors by Seniors" publication that provides
valuable insight on how to live safe and happy in a secure environment
while at the same time providing invaluable information to our
Education, Research & Development Team with key insight into the needs
of our senior population.
Home
Maintenance & Domestic Services - Under the direction of Be Safe At
Home’s key personnel, pre-screened and approved handypersons are trained
to be alert to potential fire and safety hazards in homes during their
visits. They encourage the elimination of step stools, scatter rugs;
improperly run electrical extension cords and additional often-potential
safety hazards. By removing these seemingly innocuous items, the home’s
safety environment is dramatically improved; the risk of falls is
diminished, hopefully mitigating the avoidance of any subsequent serious
injury.
“People Helping People” Program – This program provides mutually
beneficial arrangement that places well-abled and developmentally
disabled adults as handy persons who assist our clients by performing a
variety of tasks or chores that are needed in and around the home under
our supervision.
“Seniors Helping Seniors” – This community building part of our program
encourages and places younger, active retirees to provide handyperson
and domestic services to their peers. The trust and understanding
brought by the retiree handypersons has added greatly to the success of
this program. The retirees work according to their own schedules as
predicated by their own retirement plans; as is the amount of
supplemental income they may earn.
Research and Development Program — This program is designed to work with
both University and High School students to identify specific needs of
our seniors and disabled adults in order for them to maintain their
independence and age in place. Additionally, the interaction between
these two age groups provides considerable benefits to each of the
generations as well as important information and data for our programs
moving forward. Another benefit in process is the academic credit that
will be made available to the students for their work with our
programs.
The
UYM considers all these programs and people essential to its community
goals as well as to the health and well being of the persons we serve.
Program Benefits
Our
important programs, coupled with other existing home health care givers,
create a virtual “Nursing Home Without Walls”™ for our clients and
empowers them to regain control over the management of their
surroundings and in turn, their lives. This re-established control
promotes and sustains peace of mind, increased independence and
confidence, emotional well-being and improved over all health by:
- Providing seniors living environments that are safe, comfortable,
and affordable
- Providing Low cost 24/7 “Safe At Home” emergency support services
- Providing a sliding fee service’s scale for low income clients,
subsidized by community sponsors and our fund raising events allowing
for valuable services to be completed while maintaining the dignity of
those served
- Reducing occurrences of hospital stays and institutionalization
- Reducing injuries caused by in-home falls and fires
- Reducing home maintenance and Medicaid costs
- Reducing a variety of additional costs that result in significant
direct savings to the community and government
- Increased piece of mind for family members that proper and
capable care is available and administered to their loved ones
- Besides the primary and obvious benefits offered to our seniors and
other disabled beneficiaries, our services and programs provide:
- Create employment opportunities for developmentally and learning
disabled and challenged adults
- Reduce employee (e.g. the “sandwich generation”) “down time” at
work (as a result of parental care)
- Create employment, research and internship opportunities for
university and high school students
- Provide research, resources and information exchange
opportunities for professionals in the field of elder care
The
complimentary efforts of the UYM and BSAH, along with their respective
programs and strengths, provides and creates much needed services to an
underserved segment of our community in an economical, highly beneficial
program while promoting senior self-sufficiency and the offering of
much-needed support sometimes unavailable (or more importantly un-asked
for) elsewhere.
Capacity and Needs for Our Programs
This
program is targeted at a vastly growing market sector - the aging
population of the United States; moreover, this population wishes to age
with dignity and security in safety and comfort. Additionally, there
are tremendous pressures currently placed upon members of the “sandwich
generation” to care for both their children, and their parents. The
existence of the UYM and its affiliates and programs like the “Nursing
Home without Walls”™ program allows for this large and growing segment
of the population to turn to a professional organization to assist with
parental care needs without the need for governmental intervention
and/or institutionalization.
As
the U.S. population continues to age, we believe that the demand for the
services offered by UYM and its affiliate, Be Safe At Home, will
increase dramatically. We underscore the need for this program by
citing the following critical statistics regarding potential service
seekers:
• There are currently over 36.5 MILLION people
age 65 and over -- 5 Million of which are over the age of 85 – a full
12% of the current population.
• That number is expected to rise to 21% of the population over the next
40 years, an increase of 147% for that age bracket (as compared to only
a 49% increase for the rest of the population).
The current issues are big and getting bigger. Our programs address many
collaborated concerns and will allow for the care and security of many
of these individuals.
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