New program will help elderly find care

Joseph Pofit, director of long-term campuses and senior housing for the Diocese, said the program will be the focus of a diocesan initiative titled, "Health Care for Life."

The Choices program will be co-sponsored by the Diocese, diocesan Catholic Charities, St. Peter's Hospital in Albany, Troy-based Seton Health, St. Mary's Hospital in Amsterdam and St. Clare's Hospital in Schenectady.

It will include three programs:

* a private case-management service for seniors;

* a membership program they can enroll in to receive health education, newsletters and other information about services for seniors; and

* a housing program, with access to information on Avila (an independent-living community affiliated with the Diocese that's under construction), senior housing at St. Anthony-on-Hudson friary in Rensselaer and assisted-living communities.

Mr. Pofit explained: "If your mother is beginning to get frailer and you're saying, `I don't know where to begin,' that's where the program comes in. We do an assessment of your mother and her home, develop a care plan, discuss it with her physician and the family, help with implementing it and manage it month-to-month for the individual."

The boon to such a program, he said, is that the Diocese not only manages the program but also directly provides many of the services seniors need. Seniors will be able to go to any of the participating healthcare providers, and the program will work the same way at each. It will even be called "Choices at St. Peter's," "Choices at St. Mary's" and so on.

"It's quite a network," Mr. Pofit stated.

(The Choices program will be accessible through a 1-800 number when it is launched in approximately two months.)

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