Health Care District Turns Focus To Seniors

The Peninsula Health Care District Board of Directors voted on moving forward with two initiatives aimed at improving health and dental services for the growing senior population in the district at a recent meeting.

The first program involves building a 97-bed assisted living facility on the district-owned property at 1600 Trousdale Drive in Burlingame, with 24 of those beds reserved for memory care, or seniors suffering from dementia or Alzheimer’s.

“The board has been studying the issue of available, appropriate housing for seniors for close to a year,” said Peninsula Health Care District CEO Cheryl Fama. “We concluded, given that we are a health care district, we should focus on assisted living and memory care.”

In what county health care reports reference as a “silver tsunami,” the population of District residents over 65 is expected to triple in the next 20 years, emphasizing the importance of the board's focus on seniors.

“The statistics are staggering,” Fama said. “No matter how you slice it, that’s a big increase.”

The District partnered with Aegis Living, a company Fama said has financial strength and a strong track record. Aegis will develop and operate the facility.

The location of the facility lends itself well to active seniors. The one-acre area sits walking distance from public transportation, shopping and health care.

Fama estimated the earliest construction on the site could begin in 18 months to two years, with the doors hopefully opening in three years.

The second initiative aiding seniors is a $50,000 study examining shortfalls in dental care for the elderly and special needs adults, such as lack of dental coverage and offices unequipped for wheelchairs.

“We realized there were some real barriers to access for a good chunk of our population,” Fama said.

The District tapped Apple Tree Dental of Minnesota, a business that has successfully developed a model of dentistry removing barriers for the elderly and special needs populations, to help look at the data and suggest solutions.

Fama said there is a level of skepticism in the community concerning these dental gaps, but she thinks the study will validate the shortfalls in services and the need for better dental care for seniors, especially institutionalized seniors who rarely receive basic dental care.

“Our goal as a district is to help find the catalyst to coming up with a new model or a creative approach,” Fama said. “We want to take a model that is absolutely working…and say, ‘can it be customized or can it be tweaked to work in our community?’”

The results of the study are expected by the end of the year.

The Peninsula Health Care District was created in 1947 to address the health care needs of Millbrae, Burlingame, Hillsborough, San Mateo, Foster City and San Bruno residents.