St. Paul's Senior Homes & Services - Your Philanthropy at Work
2011 – St. Paul’s PACE
St. Paul's PACE is a unique program of coordinated care that offers elderly adults an innovative choice in health care. For many, it is a welcome alternative to nursing home care as participants, despite chronic health needs, can remain living independently in their home.
After an extensive capital campaign, the community contributed $5 million dollars to open the first PACE site in San Diego. In the summer of 2008, the Gary and Mary West Foundation funded a generous Information Technology grant to equip St. Paul’s PACE with computers, servers, a robust wireless network and other electronics. Recently, the West Foundation commissioned videographer Jeff Katz to produce a video to showcase programs they had supported. St. Paul’s PACE was one of the selected programs.
2010 – Holiday Giving at St. Paul's PACE
It’s been a joyous holiday season for the seniors enrolled in St. Paul's PACE. Responding to an article in the Union-Tribune, donors and organizations contributed toiletries, blankets, shoes, and other items that filled the offices at the PACE Center. “Our PACE seniors have basic needs – housing, clothing and food – year-round. It’s great to see people supporting our seniors in this way”, said Carol Hubbard, PACE Executive Director.
The faculty and students at PIMA Medical Institute adopted PACE and raised over $2,000 to purchase personalized gifts for each PACE Participant and presented them on December 22. The faculty at PIMA decided to forgo their gift exchange and use that money to buy items for the seniors while PIMA students held fundraisers to raise money. “The humility of the seniors in this program has been very touching”, said Dr. Williams of PIMA. ”There’s one Participant – she’s 91 years old – we gave her a gift and said it was from Santa Claus. She replied softly, ‘I didn’t know that Santa still remembered me.’”
St. Paul’s PACE received exceptional media coverage during the holiday season to spread the word about the program and the needs of its participants. Here is a follow-up article covering PIMA’s recent visit.
If you’re interested in learning more about St. Paul's PACE, please RSVP for an upcoming tour in January or February by e-mailing This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Space is limited.
2010 – Memory Care Program
With the support of individuals, foundations, and corporations, St. Paul’s raised over $410,000 to open a residential Memory Care Program at St. Paul's Villa. This was one area of care that St. Paul's was not able to provide – residential services for seniors with advanced stages of dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. Over the years, we had to turn numerous people away. In 2009 for instance, more than 100 seniors or their families inquired about the need to have secure residential dementia services, and 15 residents had to leave St. Paul’s because we do not provide this level of care. As an organization that prides itself on compassionate care for those we serve, one of the most disheartening decisions we had to make was to discharge a resident because their need exceeded our ability to provide the highest level of care. With generous giving in 2010, we opened the Memory Care Program in July.
2009 – Brain Fitness
Technology can be a beautiful thing. St. Paul's Manor and Villa Residents and Senior Day and PACE Participants added unique fitness programs to their already full activity calendars in 2009.
As part of our St. Paul's 2009 Annual Support Campaign, funding was raised to purchase Dakim Brain Fitness Stations. Since the stations were installed, they have gotten quite a workout as Residents and Participants often have it reserved for individual sessions for most of their days.
Researchers are now starting to understand that regular mental exercise helps maintain crucial cognitive reserves that promote brain health. In addition to physical exercise and good nutrition, seniors can best maintain their cognitive abilities by engaging in stimulating leisure activities such as chess, puzzles, and now brain fitness stations. To exercise areas of people's memory, the system uses "era appropriate subjects" in games like trying to remember the words to a song, names of movie stars, types of cars, etc. It uses touch screen navigation so the user does not need to use a mouse.
2009 - McColl Family Health Center Physical Therapy Equipment
In the first several months of purchasing $2,500 worth of physical therapy equipment, over 100 seniors recovering from various physical challenges have used the equipment under the supervision of a full-time physical therapist.
New physical rehabilitation equipment for the McColl Family Health Center has allowed our Residents to receive a broader range of physical therapy exercises, including the purchase of a standing frame which lifts Residents confined to a wheelchair (some for over several years) safely to a standing position. Through regular exercises, this change in position helps them gain endurance and keep a range of motion in their lower body, whether or not they can eventually progress to standing on their own.
Other equipment purchased such as cuff weights, exercise balls, and therapy bars all provide safe ways for our Residents to exercise and gain fundamental strength. Our occupational therapy program has also been enhanced with such equipment as pegboards, stackers, and dressing vests to help Residents regain crucial life skills and begin dressing themselves again.
Balance is a key issue with older people – especially for those recovering from a recent injury. It requires many systems in the body – nutrition, oxygenation of blood, muscle strength, joint receptors, vision, and inner ear – to coordinate and work together. Physical therapy can tune up all of these areas. Currently, our physical therapy team emphasizes strength, range of motion, balance, and coordination. With our new equipment, our Residents have become stronger and more independent. Carol R., a McColl Family Health Center Resident, said “the new physical therapy equipment is excellent and I like our physical therapist.”
328 Maple St, San Diego, CA 92103 - (619) 239-6900
2008 990 Form
