Healthy at Home

Healthy at Home

If you're like me, your mailbox often overflows daily with specialty magazines, insurance ads, cruise and travel adventures, and special offers for those in their golden years. It's a wonder how my mail carrier is able to carry the load. While most of these unsolicited items go straight to the recycling bin, one piece recently caught my attention. Local health service provider Mills-Peninsula Health Services publishes a glossy magazine called Healthpoint. Its Spring/Summer edition features an article called “Healthy at Home” that highlights how they are helping seniors to stay out of the hospital through a number of community care programs. It was a good read, and one I wish I could link to, but no such luck. (The magazine is not online.) Part of the reason the article caught my eye is, of course, because of the work we do here at CareLinx. The other is because I recently completed training as a Senior Peer Counselor through Peninsula Family Services, a partner of a Mills-Peninsula pilot program called Peninsula Circle of Care. The Circle of Care service is designed to help elderly patients successfully transition from hospitals back into their homes. The program reflects best practices in regard to the medical community's approach to elder care. As they themselves explain it: “The latest thinking in senior health care takes a step back from the traditional focus on providing medical services in response to sickness, instead reaching out into the community to coordinate a web of social services and medical care providers to keep older adults healthy at home and out of the hospital.” The Circle of Care concept makes sense and their data shows that the pilot works. Their team uses technology to determine a patient’s risk of having to return to the hospital. The team created a tool that works with their electronic health record system, using a formula that looks at key factors such as how many medications a patient takes, the number of hospital stays in the past three months, their living situation and caregiver support. While caregiver support can be a key part to "aging in place" success, it is even more so when it comes to hospital stay after-care. Indeed, it could be the difference between whether a senior is readmitted in the first 30 days or not. That's why credible articles such as Healthpoint's "Healthy at Home" – articles that provide solid tips and suggestions -- deserve a read every time. Many thanks to Healthpoint magazine for the above! And kudos to the Peninsula Circle of Care program and its manager, Geriatric Clinical Nurse Specialist Yvonne Chan. We'd love to hear your thoughts, too. Feel free to share your best tips for remaining healthy and happy at home. ______________________________ Jackie Siminitus is a writer and graphic designer who works for CareLinx, an online nationwide professional caregiver community that helps families easily find, hire, and manage caregivers who match their needs and budget.