FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact:
Ashley Bills
Corporate Director of Communications and Media Relations
740.525.5703 or abills@uchinc.org
NaviGuide Launches New Service to Support Older Adults and Family Caregivers
Columbus, OH (Mar. 28, 2022) United Church Homes (UCH) has launched NaviGuide, a new service for older adults living independently. Aging parents often turn to adult children for support in managing day-to-day activities like scheduling medical appointments, setting up home health care, navigating Medicare, cooking, grocery shopping and lawn care.
NaviGuide makes life easier for families by providing a trained service coordinator to arrange and manage a menu of services that help aging loved ones continue to live well and remain independent. The service coordinator works with the older adult and their caregiver to shape the personalized service plan, ensuring it prioritizes the needs and goals of the family.
It is a subscription-based service available in Franklin, Delaware and Greene counties in Ohio. NaviGuide service coordinators do not provide direct in-home services. Instead, NaviGuide service coordinators assist older adults with navigating healthcare options, linking them to community-based services and securing solutions that are critical to living well. NaviGuide service coordinators have strong professional connections in the aging services community and years of experience building service plans for individuals that improve their health and wellbeing.
United Church Homes already provides service coordinators in its independent senior living communities, including at The Polaris Community and several affordable housing communities in Franklin and Delaware Counties. There are many community-based programs and services available to older adults; however, families may not know about those or how to navigate the complicated network of aging services. Family members, especially adult children, or caregivers whom NaviGuide uniquely speaks to, usually have very full lives of their own.
“It’s time-consuming and confusing to coordinate services for a parent when you’re busy juggling careers, family commitments and your own home,” said Terry Spitznagel, senior executive vice president and chief growth officer for United Church Homes. “Service coordinators understand these demands and become the trusted link between families and the services needed to support a loved one on their aging journey. This eases the burden for everyone so that mom or dad get the support they need and adult children have peace of mind.”
NaviGuide service coordinators also can help families navigate when their loved ones are returning home from hospital stays or recovering from surgeries. Service coordinators help with these transitions by providing recommendations and coordinating assistance for help at home.
NaviGuide service coordinators have professional training and experience dealing with the challenges older adults and families face. Since NaviGuide service coordinators have regular contact with clients, they often are the first people to notice a change and begin important conversations such as when more services may be needed or it’s time to consider a move to a senior living community that offers a higher level of care.
It is simple to get started with NaviGuide. A service coordinator will do an initial in-home visit to determine what services an older adult needs. After the initial assessment, a month-to-month subscription covers building the plan, ongoing service coordination activities and regular check-ins to monitor health, wellbeing and service delivery.
To learn more or sign up, visit www.uchnaviguide.org or call (614) 820-8842 (Central OH) or (937) 863-9647 (Dayton OH).
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United Church Homes is the 21st largest multisite nonprofit senior living organization in the U.S. according to the 2021 LeadingAge Ziegler 200 ranking, serving more than 5500 residents in its owned and managed communities in 15 states.