Mission and Values

Partnerships

Care for Elders

Care For Elders

Care for Elders is Houston’s largest, most diverse and most experienced partnership focused on elder care issues. Uniting over 80 members from the public, private and nonprofit sectors, Care for Elders is working to increase access to services, improve the quality of care, and enhance the quality of life for older adults and their families.

In January 2004, the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation awarded Sheltering Arms Senior Services a $750,000 grant over four years for the partnership to implement its master plan. Care for Elders was 1 of only 8 projects funded nationwide from 535 applications to the Foundation’s Community Partnerships for Older Adults program.

Sheltering Arms Senior Services serves as the lead agency and fiscal agent for the partnership.

 

Healthy IDEAS

Healthy IDEAS 

Healthy IDEAS is a national program that addresses depression in homebound elders and family caregivers. It is proven to significantly reduce depressive symptoms and pain in Sheltering Arms’ case management clients. This intervention is being adapted for use by other community-based agencies throughout the country.

Sheltering Arms Senior Services is a program partner and served as a vanguard pilot site.

  • Launched with sponsorship by the National Council on Aging and the John A. Hartford Foundation.
  • The Administration on Aging awarded Sheltering Arms Senior Services a $400,000 three-year grant for the program.
  • In 2008 was established as the national technical assistance center for dissemination of Healthy IDEAS.

 

Alzheimer’s Association, Houston & Southeast Chapter

Sheltering Arms’ Home Health Dementia Care Program is provided in partnership with the Alzheimer’s Association’s Houston & Southeast Chapter, which provides ongoing staff training and case consultation.

 

Methodist Hospital

The Methodist Hospital is partnering with Sheltering Arms Senior Services to conduct a feasibility study of Hospital to Home, a geriatric project that will support elderly patients with congestive heart failure in their transition home from a hospital stay. Feasibility is being tested by Sheltering Arms case managers and Methodist Hospital discharge planners. Later, Hospital to Home will expand to include other case management agencies.

The Methodist Hospital also provides funding for Sheltering Arms Day Center scholarships and subsidized Sheltering Arms Home Care visits.

 


The University of Texas Health Science Center, School of Nursing

The University of Texas Health Science Center, School of Nursing serves as a collaboration partner, offering Continuing Education Credits to social workers and nurses on behalf on Sheltering Arms Senior Services.


Agencies for Gerontology Intercultural Field Training (AGIFT) Consortium

  • Sheltering Arms Senior Services partners with the consortium to provide social work students with education in the field, working with the burgeoning elder population.
  • Purpose is to ensure that professional social workers with gerontological expertise are available in the future.
    Funded by John A. Hartford Foundation.
  • Partners include:
    • Alzheimer’s Association
    • Better Business Bureau
    • Harris County Community Services Department
    • Harris County Hospital District
    • Houston Area Council on Alcohol and Drugs
    • Houston Area Parkinson Society
    • Texas Department of Family and Protective Services – APS
    • University of Houston Graduate School of Social Work
    • Veterans Administration Medical Center, and others

 

United_Way_Logo

United Way of Greater Houston

  • Sheltering Arms Senior Services is a charter member
  • Receives approximately $2 million in funding annually
  • Sheltering Arms Case Management partners with 2-1-1 Texas/United Way HELPLINE and ten other public and private sector organizations to improve systems efficiency and allow more elders to receive case management services.
  • Sheltering Arms Senior Services is working with United Way’s Greater Houston Long Term Recovery Committee to enhance weatherization services and bring homes structurally up to code so they meet eligibility requirements.

 

Gatekeeper Program

  • Program trains utility and service workers to reach out to frail and isolated elders with whom they come in contact in their work, and refer them for assistance.
  • A 24-hour line is staffed at the United Way, and assistance is provided by Sheltering Arms Senior Services for those with the most intense needs
  • Partnership includes 15 public, private, and non-profit organizations, including:
    • Houston Police Department
    • Houston Fire Department
    • Reliant Energy Retail Resources
    • CenterPoint Energy
    • AT&T/CWA (Communication Workers of America)