Valley Breeze: Amo celebrates PACE Month with Woonsocket facility tour

WOONSOCKET – Congressman Gabe Amo bowled a spare to cheers and applause, and he did it to help celebrate National PACE Month on Monday, with only a few hours left before the calendar changed to October.

At age 36, Amo serves Rhode Island’s First Congressional District, and since being elected to his first term late last year, he says he’s been a staunch advocate for improving the lives of seniors.

“It’s so important to me that when we look at the experience of seniors in this state, that we do it holistically,” he said. “That we are thinking about access to meaningful services and making sure that all the benefits that seniors receive are preserved, and that we are also being thoughtful about how seniors are using their time while also still building community.”

Amo said that within his first few months in office, he paid a visit to the PACE facility in East Providence, and it made an impact on him. In his experience, PACE staffers are knowledgeable about what happens in the lives of the organization’s participants and they focus on the whole person.

“They also prioritize the smiles,” he said.

One room dedicated to recreation has a small basketball hoop game, makeshift axe-throwing, and the Lane Master Pro Tournament Edition, a sort of digitized bowling arcade game similar to Skee Ball. On a Monday morning tour of Woonsocket’s PACE facility, Amo bowled a spare to a round of applause.

In other rooms of the recreational half of the facility, he chatted with participants about their various creative activities. Some dedicate their days to crafts they couldn’t do at home due to a lack of space. Others simply enjoyed the company of others.

The other half of the facility is dedicated to various medical disciplines.

PACE stands for “Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly,” with the ultimate aim of enhancing the quality of life for seniors, allowing them to live independently for as long as possible. The center’s multidisciplinary team includes doctors, nurses, social workers, and therapists who work together to develop personalized care plans for each participant.

These plans aim to address not only physical health but also mental well-being and social engagement. On one hand, you get a senior center with various activities and programming. On the other, you get a holistic approach to healthcare that includes everything from specialists to more unorthodox treatment methods.

PACE is able to explore outside-the-box options. During Amo’s visit, Chief of External Affairs Tom Boucher described one case where someone experienced night terrors related to mosquitoes from his country of origin. His care team was able to procure netting that was placed around his bed, seemingly curing him of the condition

Sometimes, Boucher said, a practical psychosomatic solution can be the best option, but it’s not the type of thing that traditional medicine can ever address. Everything from reiki to acupuncture is considered. If medical professionals think it can benefit the individual, then it can be prescribed.

The PACE approach to elderly care originated in 1971 in San Francisco and was brought to Providence in 2005 and Woonsocket in 2013. There are also locations in East Providence, Newport, and Westerly. More than 100 adults 55 or older participate in the Woonsocket location’s programming, with roughly 30 in the day center at any given point during the day.

According to internal PACE data, almost half of all participants enrolled for at least a year have not had an inpatient stay over that same period of time. And participants make 11 percent fewer visits to the emergency room than other Medicare recipients with similar health conditions.