140 elderly residents at Ann Arbor’s Lurie Terrace set to receive social work services – MLive.com

WASHTENAW COUNTY, MI — Huron Valley PACE and Ann Arbor Housing Commission have come together to help provide support and address the needs of 140 low-income, older adults residing in Lurie Terrace Senior Apartments.

Huron Valley PACE, an adult care day center, is providing a social worker to assist elderly residents at Lurie Terrace through the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation Golden Opportunities grant. The grant will provide $40,000 per year for three years to help fund the project, along with additional resources the Ann Arbor Housing Commission can provide.

“I am so appreciative and excited about the PACE-Lurie Terrace partnership,” vice president of the Lurie Terrace Resident Executive Board, Alison Diver said in a statement. “I have been so impressed with their staff and facility, and I think it is so wonderful to have a trained, professional social worker on our premises for residents to talk to, bond with, trust and get information, support, and resources.”

The Ann Arbor Housing Commission purchased and assumed the management of Lurie Terrace in March of 2021. The nonprofit senior apartment community has been offering affordable accommodations in Ann Arbor for adults 62 years and older since October of 1964.

Huron Valley PACE, a program of United Methodist Retirement Communities and Porter Hills, offers medical, psychological and supportive help through therapy, pharmaceutical needs, nutrition and meals, recreational activities, and many other means to low-income adults aged 55 and older.

“PACE’s multidisciplinary model of providing care and services to older adults is a good fit for Lurie Terrace,” Joel Barson, Ann Arbor Housing Commission residency manager, said in a statement. “With Huron Valley PACE Day Center nearby and access to practitioners from most relevant senior-focused fields under one roof, we’re excited that Lurie Terrace tenants will benefit from all that expertise.”

A Huron Valley PACE social worker will be onsite at Lurie Terrace five days a week to help independent, self-reliant residents age safely in place, said executive director of Huron Valley PACE, Sonja Felton. The social worker will offer services that include but are not limited to, counseling, case management, crisis intervention, advocacy, outreach and problem-solving.

“The residents are very much involved in the hiring process for a social worker,” said Lindsay Mann-Shanahan, marketing director of Huron Valley PACE. “It’s a unique way of doing things but it is important to all of us to have the residents be involved in hiring a social worker they can trust and connect with.”

Huron Valley PACE began rotating social workers to offer services for residents at Lurie Terrace in December, said Mann-Shanahan. This will be temporary until a permanent social worker can be hired for the senior living facility.

For more information on support services, visit the Huron Valley PACE website, or call 734-572-5777.

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