Ascension Living HOPE just got a brand new home and is now poised to continue offering care to help more senior citizens remain in their own homes and still get the medical care they need.

The program, the first PACE (Providing All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly) program in Kansas, opened in 2002 in Wichita’s former Riverside Osteopathic Hospital building. At the end of last month, HOPE moved into its new building just a block north of there, at 775 N. Edwards, and will celebrate with an official ribbon cutting and blessing ceremony on April 19.

Marketing director Jennifer Campbell said the move gives them room for growth.

“We are open to citizens 55 and older who medically qualify to go to a nursing home but who want to stay in their own homes,” she said. 

“We offer primary care, home care, transportation, and day center with a range of activities,” she said. “The bus picks our participants up at home and  brings them to the center. Most attend three days a week. We do all the scheduling of needed appointments, keep up with medications and provide them with any durable medical equipment they need.”

There are accessible shower rooms that program participants can use or they can get help with showering if they need it.

One-Stop Shop for Medical Care

A clinic in the HOPE building offers medical, dental, vision and hearing care and on given days, visiting specialists. There’s a physical therapy room and trainers to help participants work on mobility and strength building, and a mental health specialist on the staff if needed. 

“Our participants can come into the center, get all their needed medical care,” Campbell said. “It can be really hard to make different appointments in different offices, especially if you can no longer drive. That can lead to putting off or missing appointments and that can be dangerous.”

A dietician works with participants who require a special diet and makes sure they get supplemental nutrition or meals on wheels for days they don’t come into the center.

Cynthia & Evelyn’s Stories

Cynthia Owens, who has been coming to HOPE since 2014, said she was suffering severe pain in her legs that made it hard to walk. She feared she would soon be confined to a wheelchair.

“The doctors at HOPE diagnosed me with blood clots,” she said. “I had two leg surgeries and two mini-strokes and HOPE has taken great care of me. I can say for sure that I am living today because of HOPE.”

Cynthia’s friend and neighbor Evelyn Robinson said her chronic COPD was getting worse when she first joined HOPE in 2016.

“Cynthia and I have known each other for years and we set our days to come to HOPE together on purpose,” Evelyn said.

Both women said they live alone and enjoy their quiet time on the days they don’t come to HOPE.

“I have to have time to catch up on my soaps,” Cynthia said. 

Chloe’s Story

Chloe Robinson says a friend of her son introduced her to HOPE. Her son had told coworkers about being worried about his mom being home alone all day.

She said it was her home health aide from HOPE that saved her life.

“She was at my house and told me I looked awful,” she said. “She told me my face was gray and she insisted on taking me to the hospital. Just hours later, I was having a triple-bypass. I was having a heart attack and didn’t know it.”

Three Community Rooms

The new building offers three different community activity spaces designed to serve participants with different levels of need. The community space combined with the lunch room offers a variety of games and crafts. 

Across from it is a locked memory-care space where participants with dementia or severe mobility issues can relax in a recliner or watch TV under supervision of caregivers.

On the opposite end of the building is a community room for more active seniors, where on a recent afternoon, participants were celebrating their new building with a DJ, disco lights on the wall and dancing. A fenced patio and garden space opens off each community room. Plans call for gardens this summer where participants can plant vegetables and herbs and harvest them to take home.