LYNN — Element Care has opened its new site using PACE, the Program for All-inclusive Care for the Elderly, on Woodland Avenue to provide comprehensive care for older adults in need.
PACE is a program administered by MassHealth and Medicare, and Center Manager Mary Anne McGuirk said the new center will provide essential and comprehensive medical services to people older than the age of 55.
“We’re kind of like an HMO (health-maintenance organization). The government pays us and we handle all of the care,” McGuirk said. “States like Massachusetts support that because in the long run, if you can keep somebody out of a nursing home, you’re going to save money.”
“We have about 1,000 participants across the eastern part of the state, from Lynn up to Gloucester, and then we loop out to Merrimack Valley,” McGuirk said.
Element Care has already been utilizing PACE at its other facilities, including its other locations in the city, but the new facility will eventually be attached to Solimine House, a senior affordable-housing community that is in development.
U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton secured $13.2 million for 15 community projects in fiscal year 2024, including $1 million for 2Life Communities to develop Solimine House.
Solimine House will include 150 new affordable apartments for residents of Lynn who are 62 years or older.
“It’s really the first time we’re connecting housing with health care,” Element Care Marketing Manager Katie Martinson said.
McGuirk said the project is expected to take two years, but once finished, residents will not even have to leave their building to receive comprehensive care.
“We try to avoid the emergency room, we try and avoid the hospital,” McGuirk said. “You might go into the hospital with a problem and end up getting sick being in the hospital. Our philosophy is to try to preempt a hospital admission. It doesn’t always work. You know, these are older adults who have serious medical problems.”
The care facility provides everything from basic care to dental, vision, hearing, physical therapy, speech therapy, mental-health care, and more.
The new center at 235 Woodland Ave. North is 13,000 square feet and includes a teaching kitchen, library, activities room, sunroom, memory-care and exam facilities, gardens, and an enclosed courtyard. It also includes murals in the Woodland Rehab hallway that were painted by students at Raw Art Works.
“I’ve had people enroll and say this is too good to be true, but it really isn’t,” McGuirk said.
