Element Care  is meeting the healthcare needs of seniors during the winter season

By Cary Shuman

With an aging senior population growing nationally, there is a demand for specialized healthcare centers and home-based care. The team of professionals at the new Element Care PACE (Program For All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly) center on Woodland Road in Lynn is providing the necessary comprehensive services each day to Lynn and area residents ages 55 and over.

Dr. Eric Reines, Chief Medical Officer at Element Care PACE, has been the leader of the team of clinical and social service providers at PACE, having worked at the center for the past 17 years, previously operating his own medical practice.

Element Care PACE has a wide-ranging team that consists of physicians, nurse practitioners, psychotherapists, social workers, occupational, physical, and speech therapists, and activity specialists.

Navigating the winter season

Dr. Reines talked about the importance of seniors having daily behavioral health care services available, especially so during the winter months when there’s less daylight and seniors can feel more alone.

“There can be social isolation in the winter when elders can’t get out and they’re alone,” said Dr. Reines. “Some people have no family and are estranged from family, or their family is far away. It’s so wonderful for them to be able come here for activities, rehabilitation services, and visits with our nurses. We have a behavioral health team and a special memory care unit. Our seniors are supported in many ways.”

“The daycare center (the Magnolia A. Contreras Health Center) is really the heart of our program,” said Catherine Nierenberg, Director of Rehabilitation and Activities and a certified speech language pathologist who holds a master’s degree from Northeastern University. Nierenberg noted that Element Care operates seven individual PACE centers (two in Lynn, one in Beverly, Gloucester, Brighton, Lowell and Methuen.) We have an enrollment hotline that people can call, and the enrollment team would meet with potential participants to determine if the person has qualified to enroll in the program.”

Home safety evaluations

Reines said the safety of seniors inside their homes is also a key focus of the Element Care staff.

“We’re concerned about safety in general, but using space heaters and the oven to heat the home can be safety hazards,” said Reines. “Our occupational physical therapists will go a senior’s home and conduct a safety evaluation. There can be clutter in the home that people can trip over. There can be a need for [grab] bars in the bathroom, for instance, just providing various ways to make their environment safer at home.”

Reines said certain health factors can present health challenges to seniors and increase the risk of a fall inside the home,

“A person’s vestibular system, vision, position sense do deteriorate as they age,” said Reines. “With memory trouble may come judgement issues. All these factors feed into falls.”

Reines also stressed the importance of a senior staying active every day.

“Inactivity to leads to muscle weakness, especially the core muscles, which in turn increases the risk of falls,” noted Reines. “Sitting on the couch watching TV 24/7 is not healthy and will increase the risk of falls.”

Nierenberg said “a comprehensive evaluation is done in every home discipline.”

“Whatever is needed to keep our participants safe in the home, we would provide,” said Nierenberg. “We go to people’s homes and conduct a home safety evaluation. We might find that they need equipment installed or they might need to put on therapy caseload, or a visiting nurse, or homemaker. We determine any safety hazards and any needs they may have physically or environmentally.”

Plenty of activities

at the center

Nierenberg said there is an exercise group for 15 minutes each day before lunch.

“We also have different levels of therapy with our rehab team. We have a wellness program where we have walking groups around the center. We have skill therapy where somebody has goals for improving their strength and mobility. Also available are aerobics and tai chi.”

One of the annual activities is the inter-site Olympics where participants from the centers compete in various athletic events.

Supporting the ‘sandwich generation’

Element Care PACE provides tremendous support to the sandwich generation (adults who care for both their children and their aging parents).

“We keep tabs on our participants,” said Nierenberg. “We see them. Our doctors and nurse practitioners all treat the participants. We know our participants very well and we notice when they’re declining. We know when they’re failing and we intervene, without their adult children having to watch out for them and schedule appointments. We always have our eyes on our participants. If their adult children are working and our participants need to be taken to a doctor, we can do that, too. We do a lot of the caretaking, and that alleviates the burden on adult children quite a bit.”

Maintaining its focus,

reaching its goals

Dr. Reines said the focus of the center’s staff remains“quality care for all of our patients.”

“Medically speaking, I’m concerned about the medications that we prescribe and we’re careful about that,” said the esteemed physician. “On the one hand, our patients have many diseases, so their various specialists recommend many medications, and it can be very hard to keep them all straight. So, we help with making sure they’re taking their medication as it should be taking and deciding if some medicines aren’t appropriate even though the specialist said so. But the specialist doesn’t know the whole person, and we do.”

Reines said for the center’s population, he recommends pneumonia, influenza, Covid, and RSV vaccines.

Much praise from the

participants Nierenberg spoke humbly about the gratitude expressed regularly by the participants in the Element Care PACE programs at the center. “We get a lot of compliments, praise, and letter of gratitude for the care that we give and how supported the families feel by us,” said Nierenberg. The bottom line is that Lynn-area seniors are being well taken care of each day by Dr. Reines and his incredible team of health professionals at Element Care PACE. Reines takes great pride in the work being done at the center. “There is such a difference having an interdisciplinary team taking care of people who have so many needs,” said Reines. “It really makes a difference. Our participants stay out of the nursing home much longer. Sometimes, they ultimately do need the nursing home, but it’s years later than otherwise they would have. And their quality of life is so much better. We really hug them with all of our care.” Dr. Reines grew up in Marblehead and graduated from Marblehead High School. He attended George Washington University, majoring in Chemistry, and is a proud graduate of the College of Medicine at the University of Vermont. where, he said, first-year students worked directly with patients as opposed to other schools who waited for the third year before medical school students saw patients. “I thought that was a great experience,” said Reines.