One of Eaton Senior Communities’ wellness partners, Legacy Healthcare Services, provides onsite physical, occupational and speech therapy services to ESC’s residents. Anne Shimek, Legacy’s Regional Vice President, states, “Our goal in affordable housing communities is to assess the resident’s safety, mobility and ability to care for themselves and we address any obstacles that prevent them from achieving independence in the community. Our ultimate success is to reestablish independence and at the same time prevent the resident from needed institutionalized care.”
Legacy offers their services within ESC’s fitness center, allowing the therapists to provide training and oversight of residents’ use of the equipment at no extra expense. Legacy’s therapists have become part of ESC’s community, offering weekly exercise classes and health-related classes for the residents. Shimek states, “ESC was the first affordable housing community where we provided therapy services. We were successful in decreasing falls in the community and providing an environment in which the resident would have healthcare services when they returned from a hospitalization. We have replicated this model in several other affordable housing communities.”
Legacy has a passion for providing rehabilitation services to the senior population. Across the country, Legacy works with a dozen large, affordable housing communities in 3 different states. According to Shimek, “Affordable housing communities have a population of seniors that may have been underserved in the past but still require care. We have worked with the executive directors and owners of these housing communities to allow us to provide services in their communities.” Shimek attributes the successful partnership between ESC and Legacy to the fact that both organizations want the best for the resident and we work together to achieve that end. “During our initial conversations, we realized that ESC really did care about the well-being of the people who live there, thus in alignment with our mission and vision. Our relationship is one of teamwork in which our therapists work together in developing clinical programs, working one on one with a resident who has been ill, and providing staff in-services for the ESC caregivers. “