CareMore Foundation Aims to Improve the Lives of Seniors

has been serving the medical needs of the elderly for years, but the healthcare company is now expanding its reach by addressing the functional and social needs of seniors through its newly launched CareMore Foundation.

The non-profit foundation, which was initially established and funded through a donation from Cerritos-based parent company, CareMore Medical Enterprises, was formed to support and strengthen the community by providing volunteers, recognition and financial support to local non-profit organizations that serve the elderly.

“Because CareMore focuses on the care of seniors, many of whom are chronically ill or frail, we have a lot of programs that require our doctors and nurses to go into the patients’ homes,” said CareMore president Leeba Lessin. “And when this happened in the past, our staff was constantly seeing the needs that were outside our abilities to meet them.”

Lessin, who is also the Foundation’s creative architect, said that while the CareMore staff can directly affect the patients for whom they care for, the Foundation opens an avenue to help improve the lives of seniors on a much broader level.

“We care for 40,000 out of a million Medicare people around here,” said Lessin, “But we recognized there are already many community organizations dedicated to focusing on senior needs. So rather than taking on these interventions and activities ourselves, we’re going to be donating to non-profits in our communities that already address these issues.”

And with most non-profit groups cutting services because of a depressed economy, the Foundation could not have come at a better time. Lessin said its aim is to fill gaps in care by funding select organizations applying for foundation grants, based on different issues or criteria that will be introduced twice a year.

Some of the proposed themes for grant funding include flu vaccinations, functional mobility, and pharmacology – issues that the Foundation believes are of paramount concern to seniors and their caregivers and medical providers.

“One of the things our healthy system misses a lot of the time is that health care and good health is not just about medical care,” says Lessin. “So we say that for someone to be well-served, they have to have medical, social, psychological, pharmacological, and functional status.”

First Foundation Project: Senior Hunger

For its first project, the Foundation is focusing on senior hunger – a rampant problem that CareMore staff members claim is more common and widespread than most would think.

“It is reprehensible that vulnerable seniors go hungry but the fact is it’s a daily reality for many,” said Lessin. “Seniors who don’t get enough to eat, or don’t have the money for food or seniors who cannot get to the store for food often have compromised health due to their nutritional limitations. We want to help improve these dire hunger statistics in the communities where we provide medical care to many seniors.”

Foundation organizers point out that senior hunger is a complex and growing problem worsened by the country’s economic downturn.

Because of the recession, one of the most inflationary items has been fresh food, resulting in a large segment of the population resorting to canned or frozen foods – a cheaper option that also happens to be an unhealthy choice, especially for seniors.

“A big stack of TV dinners is not going to make your kidneys better, it’s going to make it way worse because of all the salt in these meals,” Lessin said. “This is what we’re trying to help fix.”

Another facet of the issue of senior nutrition highlights individuals who may have the means but don’t have the transportation to get the healthy food they need.

“For those who don’t have a way to get to the store, they end up calling a delivery service for food,” said Lessin, adding that restaurant food is not only very expensive but also high in sodium.

“Seniors need fresh fruit, vegetables and grains,” Lessin stated. “But in order to get by, they opt for the cheapest or easiest options and their diet is progressively getting worse, which means their diseases are also getting worse.”

With 65% of people over the age of 65 suffering from chronic diseases such as heart disease, arthritis, failing kidneys, failing lungs, or diabetes, the need for fresh fruit, vegetables and whole grains is imperative when it comes to senior health care, according to Lessin.

To help address these problems, the CareMore Foundation is currently accepting grant applications from community-based non-profit groups that have a direct or indirect influence on the issues of senior hunger and nutrition.

The Foundation’s Advisory Committee, which is also charged with daily operations of the foundation’s outreach efforts, will review all grant applications and funds will be awarded based on a priority basis for those who can demonstrate their roles in helping seniors improve their quality of life with nutritional resources.

“We’re looking for organizations that can help alleviate senior hunger,” said Erika Tigno, Quality Management Nurse and Leader of the Foundation, adding that the organizations for which they search would possibly deliver meals, prepare meals, or even provide volunteers to go grocery shopping for elderly individuals.

The Foundation plans to split $100,000 in grant money between its eight service regions, however there is no set value on how much each recipient will receive. But Lessin says the Foundation will likely lean toward giving “larger grants in order to really help an organization move forward” in its efforts.

Applications for grants are being accepted until May 15, and the first round of recipients will be announced during a ceremony in June.

Promoting Volunteerism

While a large part of the CareMore Foundation’s outreach is done though its grant funding, organizers also intend to promote the importance of volunteerism with local organizations by sending individuals to staff and assist the non-profit groups with their designated and specific program activities.

“There are a lot of non-profits that need volunteers,” Tigno said. “So we’re going to try to get employees, their families and any seniors and anyone else in the community who wants to help to these organizations.”

Tigno adds that CareMore employees have already expressed a desire to donate part of their paychecks toward the foundation’s efforts, but are also eager to contribute time to help in any way they can.

“People should help seniors without even being prompted,” says Tigno. “I want my kid and all her cousins to think ‘what can I do to help seniors? What can I do to help anyone?”

“Eventually I hope we (the foundation) can help create a generation that knows how to care for people."

Foundation Goals

Though the foundation is still in its infancy, organizers have high hopes it will make a steadfast difference in improving the lives of seniors as a whole.

“I would love it to be the case that five years from now our case workers are going into homes and saying ‘it’s not as bad as it was five years ago’,” Lessin said. “I hope they can say more people have food, more people have mobility. That’s kind of lofty but that’s the goal, that’s what we’re going to do.”

To learn more about the foundation or its grant program, call (562) 622-2968. All applications for the Senior Hunger project 2011 must be received by May 15.

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* The CareMore Health Plan is a federally approved Medicare Advantage plan currently serving more than 50,000 Medicare members throughout THE Southern California, Northern California, Las Vegas, Nevada, Tucson and Phoenix, Arizona regions.