The Surry County Health and Nutrition Center is partnering with Yadkin Valley Home Health to provide grant-funded personal care services for high-risk seniors in Surry County who are recovering from hospitalization.
The goal of the Interventions program is to work with seniors in the community to help them get back on their feet in order to avoid a repeat visit to the hospital, explained Danielle Marion, account executive for Yadkin Valley Home Health.
Mary Jane Jenkins, grant services coordinator for the health and nutrition center, said the $25,000 in funding for the program was awarded through a grant from the Piedmont Triad Regional Council’s Area Agency on Aging. Surry County is one of six counties to receive the first-time grant, and Jenkins said they are hoping it will be a recurring grant.
“We need to help our seniors all we can,” Jenkins said.
Referrals into the program will be made by staff with Hugh Chatham Memorial Hospital and Northern Hospital of Surry County, Marion said.
The personal care services Yadkin Valley Home Health will offer through the grant include anything from light housekeeping, to giving baths, to meal preparation, Marion said.
The services are free to the patients who are referred to the program and qualify, she said.
To qualify, patients must be a Surry County resident who is 60 years or older and are not already receiving personal care services. The funding will cover those services for up to seven days a week, two to four hours a day for up to four weeks.
“This is to lower their risk of rehospitalization,” said Marion.
While some insurances do assist with the cost of personal care services, not all do, or they don’t cover the entire cost, and many seniors can’t afford the services without financial assistance, she said of why the grant is so important.
Both Surry County hospitals have liaisons who will refer patients to SCHNC and YVHH for the Interventions program.
For other services provided through the health and nutrition center, call 336-783-8500, and for those provided by Yadkin Valley Home Health, call 336-526-6460.
