HARRISBURG – On Tuesday Gov. Tom Wolf touted two new initiatives aimed at helping Pennsylvania seniors age at home.
The first – the PA Link to Community Care Web site – was launched to connect older Pennsylvanians to services and supports available in their community.
The second – Community HealthChoices (CHC) – will launch in the southwest part of the commonwealth in January to provide seniors and others with coordinated community care.
“Everyone deserves the right to age at home if they choose to,” Wolf said. “The initiatives my administration has been putting together to help seniors stay in their homes offer options to make a smart decision about services.
“No one wants a cookie-cutter offering of where they should live or what their health care should look like.
“Both PA Link to Community Care and the soon-to-be-launched Community HealthChoices present community options to help Pennsylvania’s seniors choose the best care for themselves or their loved ones.”
PA Link to Community Care provides users with a wide variety of resources, including a home care directory that connects individuals to in-home services available in their county.
More than 350 in-home service providers appearing on the searchable directory offer personal care, assistance with activities of daily living, companionship services, respite care and or habilitation services.
The Web site is a collaboration between the departments of Aging (PDA) and Human Services (DHS), and serves as an extension of PDA’s Aging and Disability Resource call center.
Community HealthChoices seeks to improve the quality of the health care experience, serve more people in communities rather than in facilities, which gives them the opportunity to spend more time with their families and friends and to experience an overall better quality of life.
Once fully implemented, CHC will serves hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians. The program will launch in 14 southwestern Pennsylvania counties in January, with a three-phase rollout progressing east across the state through 2020.
To learn more about Community HealthChoices, visit the DHS Web site.
To learn more about the PA Link to Community Care Web site, or to find information on resources available in your county, visit www.carelink.pa.gov.