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| | by Amanda Gaines
Minnesota-based Saint Therese Home provides more than a homelike environment to the hundreds of residents and tenants living on both its campuses. It also provides a spiritual base to guide those residents through some of the most delicate times of their lives.
Founded in 1964, this faith-based senior services and housing organization has always had a history of providing innovative services illustrating a clear understanding of its resident population. In the past few years, that innovative culture has brought new growth opportunities, new partnerships, and a new vision for the future.
Continuum of care
Saint Therese provides a wide array of services, including Alzheimer’s care, transitional care for those leaving the hospital but not yet ready to return to their homes, complex medical care, assisted and independent living, memory care, respite care, hospice care, palliative care, pastoral care, home health care and a 302-bed skilled nursing facility. Five years ago, the administration began researching what elements it could add to its continuum of care and realized more could be done for its nursing home residents.
“We needed to enlist a hospice philosophy as far out as the date of admission so our residents can have a better quality of life as they go through the aging process,” said Barbara Rode, president and CEO. “Our staff got on board right away and developed 10-week educational sessions for the palliative care residents.”
According to Rode, a major component of Saint Therese’s success is its mission-driven staff. Since its founding more than 40 years ago, the organization’s mission has been to provide a the physical, social, and spiritual life for seniors of all faiths, guided by a philosophy of faith based values to uphold the dignity of human life. All employees, she said, choose to work at Saint Therese because they also live the mission.
In addition to developing the palliative care program, the staff suggested and implemented a wide range of programs, including a concierge service providing residents with prescription delivery from the on-campus pharmacy and transportation when needed, as well as a healing garden with cocoa bean-scented mulch. “Our staff is innovative,” Rode said. “And our board gives us the freedom to provide services senior housing normally can’t provide.”
But the organization’s core lies in its spiritual focus. Saint Therese has a chaplain and a number of Sisters of Saint Benedict who lives on campus and, in alignment with its founding, a pastoral staff is available full time to residents needing spiritual comfort. However, providing those services is not always easy. “Many people don’t realize that we do not receive any reimbursement for our spiritual program, but not providing those services is not an option for us,” said Rode. “We put our faith at the top of our organizational chart because, as our residents age, the spiritual component becomes one of the most important pieces of their lives.”
Money matters
The board and administration realized as federal and state government funding and reimbursements were declining, they needed to look for other revenue possibilities to both keep its nursing home for the Medicaid-eligible residents afloat and maintaining its non-clinical programs. “We actually lose about $28 per patient, per day on our Medicaid residents,” Rode said. “We gathered the staff and started to brainstorm.”
They discovered a lack of consolidated information available for families and incoming seniors, so they decided to put together SeniVision, the first offering of Saint Therese’s publishing arm, Wise Life Press. “When families come to the nursing home, they deal with many emotions,” said Rode. “We put a book together that acts as a toolkit, helping families through the process from the independent resident through the dying process and then through the bereavement.”
SeniVision also provides information on the financial complexities of transitioning a loved one through senior care, such as what it means to be in assisted living, how it’s funded, what different levels of funding are available, how to apply for Medicaid, and what services can be waived in a particular county. For example, said Rode, in some states, the county pays for the services but not for the actual apartment. “We want to help people think about where they can find their specific state information, and who are the key people to contact,” she said.
Saint Therese is already selling SeniVision to financial planners, as well as individual families. Rode says SeniVision will not be the last publication the organization puts out, as the dollars go back into the services for the residents and tenants of Saint Therese.
Joining hands
In addition to developing a publishing arm, Saint Therese partners with three co-ops to highlight financial efficiencies. The first, called the BESTage Program, includes 11 facilities and focuses on ensuring each organization has the resources to provide opportunities in all areas of the wellness wheel, including the physical, spiritual, emotional, vocational, intellectual, and psychological. The co-op is also looking at a variety of technologies to keep residents’ minds active, including the Nintendo Wii game system.
“We look at the Wii as a way to pull people together,” Rode said. “We are also looking at kiosks on which residents can push buttons to hear their favorite hymns or see pictures of their families.”
The second group, Care Choice, is a 22-facility co-op centered on quality improvement and best practices, as well developing efficiencies amongst the organizations. The third group comprises four organizations under the Archdioceses of Saint Paul in Minneapolis to look at working with parishes to build senior housing. And as the organization starts looking for land for a third campus, this kind of support will be vital. “We’re expecting a tremendous amount of growth in the upcoming decade, and a third campus will be crucial,” Rode said. “It will also give us the chance to expand our wellness program and continue our transition to holistic care.”
by Amanda Gaines
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"Among all my patients in the second half of life ... there has not been one whose problem in the last resort was not that of finding a religious outlook on life."
- Carl Jung
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