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Frail Elders
Community Care for the Elderly
As a Lead Agency in Pinellas County, Gulf Coast Jewish Family Services provides care management to more than 1,000 frail elders annually age 60 year and over to promote and maintain their optimum level of functioning in the least restrictive setting possible, reducing the need for crisis intervention.
Care Management is a person-centered service that assists individuals identify their physical and emotional needs and helps them plan for services and supports making it possible to remain living independently with dignity in their own home or the home of a care giver. Care managers closely monitor the quality and effectiveness of the services provided, as well as, the individual and family's satisfaction.
Services that may be arranged by Care Managers
- adult day care
- home health aide
- counseling
- homemaking
- personal care
- home delivered meals
- respite
- home repair
- medical therapeutic care
- incontinent supplies
- home nursing
- emergency alert response
Care managers may also provide additional support and services to persons residing in assisted living facilities who would otherwise need nursing home care. Services are authorized by the care manager and provided by the Assisted Living Facility and may include: adult resident care, behavior management, medication management, medical supplies, nursing services, and incontinent supplies.
Call the Aging and Disability Resource Center of Pasco and Pinellas counties for more information on how to access services.
Senior Helpline Number and Intake Number: 727-217-8111
Alzheimer's Initiatives
About 4 million people in the U.S. have Alzheimer's. It is an illness that makes it hard for people to remember, think, and use language. It can make them act strange or seem moody. After a while, people with Alzheimer's have a hard time with things like using the phone, cooking or handling money.
Sadly, many people think the early symptoms of Alzheimer's are signs of normal aging so Alzheimer's is often not diagnosed and treated early. Alzheimer sufferers are both those with the disease and those who watch. It's a painful disease with no physical pain.
Older Americans Act Title III program provides homemaker services to frail elders in Pinellas County. These services enable elders to remain in their homes and avoid or delay placement in a nursing home.
Gulf Coast Jewish Family Services offers homemaker assistance to enable frail elders to maintain their own home and remain independent by assisting with housekeeping tasks they may no longer be able to perform. This is an essential community based service, based on the principle that in-home care can help preserve or improve the quality of life for persons in their later years and reduce the need for unnecessary out-of-home care or nursing home placement.
We proudly serve persons 60 and older who are having difficulties maintaining their own home or apartment due to physical or mental disabilities. Experienced staff work with individuals and their care givers to identify their needs and what they believe will make life easier. We do our best to match up an individual's needs and preferences with the skills, experience, and talents of our homemakers. We closely monitor the quality and effectiveness of the services provided, as well as, the individual and family's satisfaction.
Services that may be provided by Homemakers
Our homemaker program provides trained caring and compassionate homemakers that assist with many things including, but not limited to:
- Mopping, sweeping, and vacuuming floors
- Grocery shopping and picking up prescriptions and medications
- Meal planning and preparation
- Cleaning the bathroom, including the tub, shower, sink, mirrors
- Cleaning the kitchen, including dishes, range, refrigerator, counters, and cabinets
- Laundry, ironing, mending of clothing, pick up and drop off of dry cleaning
- Dusting and changing the bedding
- Advocacy and referral for other needed care
Homemaker services are provided throughout Hillsborough, Pasco, and Pinellas
Counties. Priority for services is given to low income, minority individuals living in rural areas. Support for these services is made possible through the Older Americans Act, Agency for Health Care Administration, and private contributions.
Need Some Assistance?
Please call Gulf Coast Community Care
(727) 479-1800
or
1 (800) 888-5066
Caring Companions Program - This program matches frail elders and the disabled with qualified companions to assist with meal planning, meal preparation, errands, transportation, household chores, medication reminders and other basics enabling the individual to remain at home and avoid institutional placement. Although these services are paid privately, families will find tremendous value in the expertise, professional care, and oversight. Let Gulf Coast Jewish Family Services be there when you are not able to be there.
All caring companions graduate from a 40 hour Caregiver Companion Training Course sponsored by The Department of Elder Affairs and the Hospice of the Florida Suncoast and/or have at least 3 years of satisfactory employment as a companion. Gulf Coast JFS also conducts a through interview, verifies professional references, conducts regular background checks, regularly verifies auto insurance and driver license, and provides ongoing geriatric and disabilities training.
Disabled Adults
The Community Care for Disabled Adults (CCDA) program responds to the unmet needs of close to 250 low-income adults aged 18-59 with catastrophic illnesses and other debilitating conditions who are at imminent risk of nursing home placement. These individuals have a permanent physical or mental disability that restricts their ability to perform one or more activities of daily living and impedes their capacity to live independently.
The goal of the CCDA program is to provide in-home and community support to promote and maintain the highest functioning level for these individuals so they live dignified and reasonably independent lives in their own homes.
We use a person-centered approach to assist individuals identify their needs and help them plan for services and supports that will allow them to remain in their home. The individual is the center of planning and makes the decision of who to include in the process. Highly skilled case managers assist the person in arranging for the planned services and then, closely monitor the quality and effectiveness of the services provided, as well as, the individual and family's satisfaction.
A variety of services and supports are available to help the individual remain in their home. Specific services may include:
- homemakers who provide the basics of housekeeping, shopping, laundry, cooking and meal preparation;
- personal care assistance;
- home delivered meals
- adult day care
- adult day health care
- emergency alert/response service
- escort service
- in-home nursing care
- interpreter service
- medical equipment and supplies
- physical and/or mental examinations
- respite care
- transportation
The CCDA program has been found to be effective in terms of cost and outcomes in an independent evaluation conducted by the University of South Florida in November 1997. To view a summary of the evaluation
click here.
Developmental Disabilities - Gulf Coast Jewish Family Services works in partnership with the Agency for Persons with Disabilities to provide support coordination services to more than 500 adults and children with developmental disabilities such as, spina bifida, autism, cerebral palsy, Prader-Willi syndrome and mental retardation. Helping persons take charge of their lives and realize their potential to succeed, while at the same time ensuring their safety, well-being and self-sufficiency. We believe everyone has enduring capacity to grow and be an active contributing member of their community.
A core value of our program is person-centered planning, which means assisting persons to decide what they need to reach their goals. With the assistance of skilled professional staff, individuals with disabilities and their families plan, find, and access all the supports needed to live "everyday lives."
The types of supports and services that make it easier for people to live, work and play in places they choose include, but are not limited to:
- Adult Day Training
- Residential Services
- Adaptive Equipment and Supplies
- Homemaker Services
- Companion Services
- In-home supports
- Personal care assistance
- Transportation
- Supported Employment Coaching
- Respite Services
- Supported Living Coaching
- Behavioral Services
Some persons may not be eligible for all the services provided but may be eligible for Family and Supported Living. This program is specifically designed for individuals who choose to live in their own home, family home or in a supported living situation. There are some limitations on the type and amount of services persons can receive under this program.
Gulf Coast Jewish Family Services is one of the largest single of Medicaid waiver support coordination in Florida. We currently provide Support Coordination in Pinellas, Pasco, Hillsborough, Manatee, Polk, Highlands and Hardee Counties.
If interested and would like more information, please call toll free
People who have or might have a developmental disability may apply for services at any time by completing the Application for Services and forwarding it to the Agency for Persons with Disabilities in the district/region where the potential applicant lives. Concerned relatives, friends or others may apply on behalf of a person that they believe has a developmental disability.
CCDA is partially sponsored by DCF
Mental Health - Gulf Coast provides an extensive array of community-based services for adults and elders with serious and persistent mental illness that has been recognized nationally and internationally. These programs are detailed under
Mental Health Services
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