Starting this month, the Care Synergy network will become the national hub for CAPABLE sites around the country through a partnership with the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing.
Care Synergy is a Colorado-based network for community-based home health care, hospice and palliative care providers.
With the new agreement, the company will take over the management functions from Johns Hopkins, which initially launched the CAPABLE program in 2009.
“It really makes sense to take this and expand it as much as we can when you look at the trends of the aging population,” Tricia Ford, vice president of operations with Care Synergy, told Home Health Care News. “We see this as a value when so many people across the country want to remain in their home [as they age].”
CAPABLE is an interdisciplinary program that combines nursing care, occupational therapy and handyman services. It stands for “Community Aging in Place — Advancing Better Living for Elders” and aims to prove that with modest investments and short-term interventions, aging adults can stay in their homes longer while improving their quality of life.
Under the new leadership of Care Synergy, the plan is to expand those services in new markets throughout the country.
Care Synergy’s nonprofit network mainly provides back-office and administrative support to dozens of nonprofit, home-based care providers. Two of its partners include The Denver Hospice and the Colorado Visiting Nurse Association (Colorado VNA), the latter of which received a $2.3 million grant from the state to expand its CAPABLE program in August.
CAPABLE started in Baltimore over 12 years ago and has expanded to over 25 cities in 23 states since then.
“This partnership comes at an exciting time,” Sarah Szanton, dean of the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, said. “CAPABLE has expanded rapidly over the past several years and untapped opportunities await. Care Synergy’s experience and expertise will complement our resources and services to expand CAPABLE to even more locations across the country.”
Through the three pillars of CAPABLE care, caregivers collaborate with clients to increase mobility and functionality in the home. The program usually takes four to five months and includes goal setting, action planning and recorded improvements for activities of daily living (ADLs).
Clients in the CAPABLE program typically are in the early stages of their care journey and could soon transition into a home-based care environment, Ford said.
“It’s really [geared toward] someone along the trajectory of their care, further upstream,” she said. “Home health and hospice, those are medically driven. CAPABLE is client-driven. They come up with the goals. This is someone who is still living at home and needs some additional support.”
Care Synergy and Johns Hopkins finalized their agreement last week, and the transition became effective Oct. 1.
Additional reporting by Jim Parker.
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