November is National Home Care & Hospice Month and Brio Living Services has a lot of reasons to celebrate! This month, especially, we honor those care teams who make such a difference in serving older adults in their homes and communities.
Our senior living organization offers a variety of options to help older adults get the care they need in the homes they love. In fact, 68% of the more than 8,000 older adults served by Brio Living Services each year receive care through our home- and community-based programs!
“The aging services industry is quickly evolving,” says Luke Reynolds, Brio Living Services Chief of Home and Community Based Services. “Brio Living Services aims to fully understand and meet the diverse needs of older adults. It is wonderful to be part of a comprehensive system of care that prioritizes care models that help individuals age in place and thrive in their homes and communities.”
At Brio Living Services, this comprehensive system includes:
Porter Hills Home Health Care started in Grand Rapids in 1995 and, in 2021, the program expanded to serve older adults on the east side of Michigan as well. Each year, our Home Health Care team of certified professionals serves approximately 1,800 older adults, providing skilled care in the home. Home Health clients are often recovering from orthopedic surgeries, have congestive heart failure or other cardiac health needs, or have serious wounds that require skilled care. Our Home Health team has one of the highest satisfaction ratings in West Michigan. One client shared, “A physical therapist came in twice a week to work with me, and they were so kind and helpful. Seeing them brightened my day … and I got better quickly!”
Says Whytlie Beasley, team lead for Porter Hills Home Health Care East, “Our goal with Porter Hills Home Care is to help those in need feel better and heal in their own home. We provide customized care that is specific to their needs and where they are in their healing journey. We are dedicated to quality care, health, and safety.”
Brio Living Services partners with other senior living organizations to provide programs such as TANDEM365, which offers wrap around services and advanced level case management tailored to each individual’s needs. “Our goal is to keep people in their home,” says TANDEM365 Chief Executive Director, Teresa Toland. “The last years of life are often the most expensive, especially for those living with chronic diseases. TANDEM365 works to help people manage their illnesses, as well as their social determinants of health, to help keep our clients out of the emergency room or hospital setting and improve their quality of life.”
Emmanuel Hospice is another one of Brio’s partnerships, providing in-home hospice care, music and other therapies, and grief support services to approximately 700 people. “Part of what makes us unique is our understanding that each person we care for is still very much alive. How does this individual and their family want to live?” says Executive Director Sara Lowe. “It’s our calling to make every moment meaningful.”
In addition, Avenues by Porter Hills offers “a life plan community without walls,” an innovative membership program that assists its members through varying levels of care as they age in place in their homes.
Brio Living Services also helps older adults age in place through its five PACE (Program of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly) sites across lower Michigan. Each year, we serve over 1,100 nursing-home eligible older adults, helping them remain living as independently and safely as possible in their own homes, with the help of PACE services. This includes in-home care as well as medical care and services provided at each PACE Day Center. Says one participant, “PACE actually saved my life. I love it! PACE has made me a new person.”
To learn more about Brio Living Services and the Home- and Community-based programs we offer, visit our home healthcare webpage