Full Life Care provides community based long term care to individuals with chronic or terminal illnesses or disabilities. Their focus is to reduce dependence on nursing homes as a primary source of long term care.
Proven Success
Community-based long-term care provides a cost effective alternative to institutionalization or in-home nursing care. The annual cost of a nursing home, for example, is typically over $60,000. The average annual cost of adult day health services at Full Life is about $7,000.
The care that people receive at Full Life focuses on proactive health management, which helps to reduce the need for costly emergency hospital care. Too often the health care that elders receive, especially those who are low-income, is in response to a health emergency or setback.
60 – 70% of the overall population Full Life serves is nursing home eligible and might otherwise be living in an institution. 100% have a chronic illness, terminal illness or serious disability and 100% are living in non-institutional settings. 98% of those they served last year were able to maintain their independence and their health.
Use of Best Practices
Full Life uses a new evidence-based exercise program that has been proven to be successful in helping maintain the strength, balance and functioning of participants. This program is the foundation of their exercise programs that clients use on a daily basis.
The agency has hired their own mental health specialists and is able to dedicate time to clients with mental health challenges.
Sustainability
Full Life has been recognized nationally as an innovative leader in the field of adult day-health care and have been selected by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Brookdale Foundation, among others, to serve as a model for new programs that are starting up across the country.
Financial Health
About 85% of their funding comes from government sources such as Medicaid. Government funding does not cover the full expense of the care that they provide. In 2010 they weathered large budget cuts by consolidating programs, and increasing their efforts in event fundraising. They continue to reach out to private donors for support and work to attract clients who have the capacity to pay privately for the care they receive.