SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – Since the Green Mountain Care Commission’s hospital reform plan was released, two things have become very clear: More housing and preventive care are needed to save Vermont’s crisis-hit health care system, and the consultant who drafted the plan says services like SASH at Cathedral Square should be the model.
“When I collapsed and lost consciousness on the first floor, someone found me right away,” Cathedral Square resident Marge Berthold said.
Bertholdo was at high risk for falls. Luckily, she lives in Cathedral Square, which is not a nursing home but an affordable senior housing complex with a care coordinator and a health care nurse on-site.
“If I had been living alone in an apartment instead of in a senior housing complex, the police might not have found me so quickly,” Berthold said.
SASH stands for “Support and Services at Home,” and is a program run at Cathedral Square that provides preventative and immediate medical care to Medicare beneficiaries in the area where they live.
“Bringing services to people’s homes removes the stigma, eliminates transportation issues and even the need to call to schedule an appointment,” said Cathedral Square CEO Kim Fitzgerald.
It’s a new way of thinking about health care in a system where people often feel like they can’t get help.
“It’s nice to have someone watching out for you compared to having to wait three months to see a doctor,” said Cathedral Square resident John Loso.
According to the Department of Health, by 2030, one in three Vermonters will be over 60. Seniors are the state’s fastest-growing population group and are in desperate need of housing and health care, with 1,200 people on Cathedral Square’s waiting list.
“The population will decrease, people will be at risk, and we’ll have more homelessness,” Fitzgerald said.
Fitzgerald says Cathedral Square’s SASH program has reduced evictions, ambulance trips and expenses, and with federal approval, the model has expanded to Maryland, Rhode Island and, more recently, family and residential housing.
“For the last two years, we’ve been piloting something in Brattleboro that we call ‘SASH for All,’ which really serves people of all ages who live in apartment complexes,” Fitzgerald said.
Fitzgerald also said early data shows SASH for All is already preventing evictions and providing preventive health care to some of Vermont’s most diverse and low-income and disability communities. Following the announcement of the hospital reform plan, SASH is expected to continue expanding in Vermont.
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