Making an Impact: Extra PCA Hours Help Client Recover
In the Making an Impact series, clients and services are featured to expand awareness of the wide array of help available at JFS and to ensure donors understand the lives they touch and the difference they make throughout the community. Names have been changed to protect privacy.
“Barb” is a 70-year-old female client who currently receives care coordination services through JFS’ UCare program. She has been with JFS since 2019 and until recently, has never required assistance from her care coordinator.
Barb has a complex medical history. Because of a hand injury, she is disabled and receiving Social Security. Since the injury Barb has had difficulty grasping items and is unable to complete most daily tasks. Barb was also recently diagnosed with liposarcoma and received radiation therapy and surgery that left her with more than 50 stitches and an incision from her left ankle to her groin. Her surgery required her to receive daily wound care even after hospital discharge home. As Barb was in and out of the hospital and transitional care, her care coordinator was organizing her care with every physician and the hospital.
It was important to Barb that once she was home, she had the support and care she needed to heal properly. Barb’s care coordinator responded immediately and set Barb up with 45-day temporary personal care assistance (PCA) until a formal care plan could be put in place. Barb stayed with her PCA, allowing her to receive the care she needed and ultimately gave her time to heal properly.
At the time of her assessment Barb shared her medical and financial concerns with her care coordinator. She was having difficulty paying rent and other monthly bills. She also shared her desire for her home care services to continue.
Barb’s care coordinator connected her with community financial resources. Barb is also in the process of receiving elderly waiver funds, so she can continue receiving home care services. She is back in her own apartment living independently and hopes to resume working one day. But for now, she has options as she navigates her medical needs.