AGENTS OF MERCY

SPRING 2019

WHEN HE FIRST ENROLLED in the ArchCare Senior Life PACE program in Harlem, Gustavo Castano could barely stand up. “I wasn’t in a good physical state,” he says. “I was pretty much ready to give up on life.” He needed surgery and rehabilitation to repair his hip. “I started at zero,” he recalls.

That was seven years ago. Gustavo shakes his head in disbelief over his own transformation. “Now,” he says, “I like to help the other people here.” He looks around at the wellness center where other participants are eating, talking or engaged in art therapy. On the far side of the room, a white-haired woman is sitting alone, looking a little out of place.

“I go over to people and ask if they need help,” Gustavo says. “I say hello. If they’re scared or confused or unhappy, I can cheer them up and suggest things they can do. I keep an eye on everything, and I let the nurses know if someone needs help.”

Wellness center supervisor Daisy Ferreyra agrees: “That’s the truth,” she says proudly. “He is a big help to us. He’s usually the first one to speak up if someone is having a problem.”

Gustavo flashes an infectious smile. “This place changed my life,” he says. “Now I like to pay something back.” Then he goes to rejoin the social scene in the wellness center and help the woman, who is new to the program, feel at home.

A few blocks away, at the Terence Cardinal Cooke Health Care Center, it’s lunchtime in the Huntington’s disease unit. Many patients sit in wheelchairs with staff (ArchCare calls them “care members”) who help them eat. When Dr. Anthony Lechich, medical director of the Huntington’s program, passes through, patient after patient brightens. Those who can, greet him with a smile or a “Hello, doctor.” He stops and talks with each of them, inquiring about how they are feeling and observing their responses closely. Huntington’s disease slowly destroys brain cells, gradually robbing patients of their mental acuity, control over their movements and ability to speak.

He rests a hand companionably on the shoulder of one resident. “Elliot,” he says, “I’d like you to say hello to some visitors.” With considerable effort, Elliot leans forward and offers a barely perceptible wave of the hand. “Pleased to meet you,” he says.

Upstairs, many of the children in the Specialty Hospital for Children are finishing up movie time. The unit’s doctors, nurses, therapists and teachers care for 57 children and young adults with severe physical and neurological impairments. Though these young bodies may appear distorted by illness or injury and their voices are inaudible or unintelligible to an untrained visitor, there is a peaceful demeanor here, as the residents lie or sit contentedly in the companionship of one another and their caregivers.

After the movie, a young woman named BethAnn, 25, takes over propelling her own wheelchair, rolling the wheels forward an inch or two at a time. It’s a big accomplishment for her. To an observer accustomed to life at a more hurried pace, her progress is painfully slow – but her caregiver is delighted and sings her praises softly as she inches forward. BethAnn can’t speak, but her smile radiates pride of accomplishment.

“We become family for kids who may not have any other family and who are generally here for the rest of their lives,” says Dr. Vicki-Jo Deutsch, medical director of the Specialty Children’s Hospital. In a setting where the patients’ needs are so extreme and the demands on staff are high both physically and emotionally, many care members have been at their jobs for a decade or more. “We love these kids,” Dr. Deutsch says matter-of-factly. “There’s a lot of joy here.”

A HOLISTIC MODEL

Welcome to ArchCare, the multifaceted healthcare agency of the Archdiocese of New York, where scenes like these occur countless times each day. ArchCare’s mission is to provide faith-based holistic care to frail and vulnerable people unable to fully care for themselves. “Most providers treat patients transactionally, only looking at the crisis of the moment,” says Scott LaRue, ArchCare’s president and CEO. “ArchCare looks at the whole person, physically, emotionally and spiritually, and cares for the full spectrum of their needs.”

Originating in the late 1800s as a loose consortium of efforts to aid the sick and elderly, the ministry now called ArchCare launched in 1978 as the Catholic Health Care System, not long after the Archdiocese of New York acquired Flower Fifth Avenue Hospital on 106th Street, now the Terence Cardinal Cooke Health Care Center (or TCC). The ArchCare name was later adopted to emphasize the unification of the archdiocese’s health- and elder-care initiatives. Since then, the menu of ArchCare programs has steadily expanded, as has their geographical reach.

Cardinal Dolan could not be clearer about the role of the Church in serving communities that would otherwise be forgotten or abandoned by mainstream health care. “We have a duty to carry on the healing mission of Jesus Christ,” he has said. “Where others say ‘We can’t’ or ‘We won’t,’ we as Catholics say ‘We can’ and ‘We will.’”

A HOSPITAL IN HARLEM

In 1987, a decade after the acquisition of TCC, the State of New York closed the Willowbrook State School on Staten Island after news reports revealed deplorable conditions of neglect and abuse. Unable to find another institution capable of caring for the most severely disabled children, the state asked if the Archdiocese of New York could fill the void. The result was TCC’s Specialty Hospital for Children.

A similar scenario unfolded in 1989, when New York City officials approached John Cardinal O’Connor about long-term care for HIV/AIDS patients, a population that many providers shunned. The archdiocese stepped forward to provide a home that offered cutting-edge care in an accepting, caring residential community at TCC.

The Huntington’s unit at TCC, the largest facility in the country dedicated to the expert treatment of Huntington’s disease, ALS and other neurodegenerative disorders, was also created in the late 1980s to address another need unmet by mainstream medicine. Before the pioneering Huntington’s unit opened at TCC, there was no good recourse for New York area families dealing with the late stages of this condition.

The capacious buildings at TCC host a number of other ArchCare programs, including a skilled nursing center for people who require 24-hour care in a traditional nursing home setting; a post-hospital rehabilitation program for people recovering from major illness or surgery; and specialized long-term care for people with late-stage kidney disease, Alzheimer’s and other conditions.
 

KEEPING PACE WITH ELDER CARE

Increasingly, aging Americans are seeking ways to access necessary assistance outside of nursing care facilities. The ArchCare Senior Life Program of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) is a community-based health-care program that delivers the care and expertise of a full-service nursing home 24/7 without requiring its members to move out of their homes. Many come to PACE through ArchCare’s Care Navigation Center, a free phone service that helps seniors and their families identify the best care options and access needed services (855-951-2273).

Eligible seniors 55 and older can spend time at a PACE wellness center daily to socialize, enjoy a healthy lunch and receive medical care in a state-of-the-art clinic, as well as get physical therapy, music and art therapy and other services. When specialist care is required, PACE coordinates it and even provides transportation to the appointment. The program also provides transportation to and from the program and in-home nurses and health aides for clients who need them.

The Harlem PACE center, at 117th Street and Fifth Avenue, serves 250 clients in its community. ArchCare has seven other PACE centers on Staten Island, in the Bronx and in Westchester County, and plans are in place to open more facilities in the archdiocese’s northern counties.

GROWING TO MEET THE NEEDS

The list of programs offered by ArchCare is long and getting longer. Included are specialized PACE care for seniors with intellectual and developmental disabilities, Parkinson’s disease or deafness; end-of-life care; and the nation’s only fully accredited hospital devoted exclusively to palliative care for adult patients with advanced cancer (ArchCare at Calvary Hospital in the Bronx). ArchCare oversees the hospital chaplaincy program for the entire Archdiocese of New York. An ArchCare mobile health clinic crisscrosses the Hudson Valley, delivering care to agricultural workers during the week and free health screenings at parishes on weekends. Most recently, ArchCare began renovating an unused convent on Staten Island to create apartments for young adults with autism, a population with very limited housing options.

Expanding ArchCare services in northern regions is a top priority for Cardinal Dolan. By 2020, ArchCare expects to provide integrated managed care plans in all 10 counties in the archdiocese. With nursing homes and rehab facilities in Manhattan, Staten Island, the Bronx and Dutchess counties; a second center for care of Huntington’s and other neurodegenerative disorders in Rhinebeck; and new home care services in the works for Ulster and Dutchess counties, ArchCare is well on the way to achieving the cardinal’s goal.

What sets ArchCare apart is not only its focus on helping the needy and delivering care unavailable from other providers. Again and again, what one sees in the agency’s facilities and caregivers is a culture of Christian love and compassion. As Cardinal Dolan observes: “When I die, Jesus is not going to ask me, ‘Did you renovate the cathedral?’ He’s going to ask, ‘Did you feed me when I was hungry, did you ... care for me when I was sick?’”

For more information on ArchCare, to make a contribution or to volunteer, visit archcare.org.