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SATURDAY, SEPT. 29, 2018 • KOKOMO TRIBUNE
■
Kokomo Healthcare Center
offers highest level of services
There comes a time for many families
when 24-hour skilled nursing care for a
loved one is simply a necessity. All too
often that time has meant traveling to
Indianapolis or farther. Now, Kokomo
Healthcare Center is keeping families
closer together through advancement in
its care capabilities.
“For many of the medically complex
cases, such as those requiring BiPap and
CPAP ventilation, families typically
have to go out of town to find a facility to
meet their needs,” said Reneé Hamilton,
director of human resources for Kokomo
Healthcare Center. “But we’re excited to
say we can now assist those patients
right here in Kokomo.”
That is thanks to the center’s new
Trilogy Ventilators. The advanced
equipment allows the center to adminis-
ter non-invasive ventilation support for
patients suffering from a wide array of
health conditions.
A member of the CommuniCare fam-
ily of companies, Kokomo Healthcare
Center offers 24-hour skilled nursing
care, short-term recovery, and physical
therapy services provided through its
Advance Rehabilitation Unit.
The center’s goal is to do more than
merely tend to clinical needs. That’s why
their team of rehabilitation experts con-
sists of experienced and caring physical,
occupational and speech therapists.
Their integrated Physician Alignment
program develops personalized plans of
care with critical input from one or
more physicians.
So, whether you’re recovering from
surgery or an acute illness, they can
meet the challenges ahead and help re-
store a patient’s highest level of func-
tionality and an enhanced quality of life.
Another feather in Kokomo Health-
care Center’s cap is that it is one of few
facilities offering private Medicaid
suites.
“Oftentimes you don’t get a private
room unless you’re paying out of pocket
or have a premium insurance plan,”
Hamilton continued, “but here, you can
have Medicaid coverage and still have a
private room. This is a rarity in long-
term care facilities anywhere.”
They accept most insurance plans
and work with local Area Five agencies
in order to maintain a continuum of
care. They also work closely with all lo-
cal and Indianapolis-based case manag-
ers.
“It’s comforting to the families to
know we have such close relationships
with discharge planners and case man-
agers,” she said.
Advancements in care
close to home
PAID ADVERTISEMENT
Kokomo Healthcare Center
429 W. Lincoln Road, Kokomo
Phone: 765-453-5600
BY GEORGE MYERS
KOKOMO TRIBUNE
T
urning
Point, Howard
County’s Systems of Care
program and its most com-
prehensive response yet to
the local drug epidemic,
kicked off on April 30 to what
one official described as phones
ringing “off the hook.”
The service, located in an of-
fice at the Family Service Asso-
ciation, treated its first patient
before noon and generated a
bevy of voicemail requests, said
Sherry Rahl, the Turning Point
navigator. The response came
after months of promoting the
service and its potential impact.
“I am excited about what is
going on already today. It’s so
good I can’t put my office to-
gether,” she joked at the time.
“It is absolutely phenomenal.”
Rahl said the first patient, a
recovering addict, was con-
nected during a meeting with
six different resources and has
been scheduled for follow-up
appointments – kicking off an
inclusive approach nurtured
since last fall.
A drug summit in September
2017 first brought together
around 65 officials from law en-
forcement, government, health-
care and more. Included were
roundtable discussions among
the attendees, as they identified
their priorities in attacking a
problem that’s plagued nearly
every community in America.
Then, in November 2017, a
crowd filled the auditorium at
Inventrek Technology Park to
hear Howard County Commis-
sioner Paul Wyman unveil the
county’s plan of attack on the
opioid crisis. It was a direct fol-
low-up to the summit held
about a month prior.
Now, the program is taking
the first of many steps with
those most directly affected by
the drug epidemic.
That long-term process, said
Rahl, will include a close, but
not suffocating, approach. “That
way we can begin to see not
only how they utilize these re-
ferrals and these resources but
also to follow up and see, what
did they get help on, and what
do they still need some assis-
tance on?” she said.
“We’re going to open the door
for them to be able to get this
assistance, but we’re also not
hand-holding them through the
process. We’re making sure that
they take the initiative to go get
that help.”
Once that is done, said Rahl,
follow-up meetings will com-
mence and an addict or family
can hopefully be helped.
Rahl plays Turning Point’s
most direct role as the person
who meets with addicts and
their family to help find the care
they need. She has served as di-
rector of Project Access, a free
service in Howard County that
helps clients navigate the com-
plexities of the healthcare sys-
tem, but relinquished the role
upon Turning Point’s opening.
In general, the SOC is a col-
laborative effort among numer-
ous fields – medical, mental
health, faith-based and more –
to fight the drug epidemic and
its many causes and effects.
Credited by Rahl with helping
to facilitate early treatment op-
portunities were subcommittees
formed during the program’s
planning phase. The subcom-
mittees, represented by associ-
ated leaders, are: mental health
and addiction, youth and family
peer support, prevention, com-
munity support and engage-
ment, and finance sustainability.
The first patient, she said,
was sent to Turning Point by a
Howard County probation offi-
cer.
“I can see already that the
army is out there to refer, and
now that the door is open it’s
going to begin to flood,” noted
Rahl.
Jennifer Johnson, Howard
County’s SOC coordinator, was
no less optimistic.
“I think eventually it’s going
to reduce (local addiction). …
Along with what the community
has already been doing, we’re
just another entity of that,” she
said.
“We’ve got to realize that it’s
not just a matter of getting peo-
ple into services, but it’s ongo-
ing. We’ve got to educate them
on treatment, you’ve got to edu-
cate them on reducing the
stigma of addiction.”
Johnson added that program
officials will work on “not dupli-
cating services, because we don’t
want to recreate the wheel. … If
we see a gap that needs to be
filled, then we’re going to create
something to fill that gap.”
The main critique of Turning
Point in recent months has been
whether it will in fact be a du-
plicative referral service. One
critic, Howard Superior Court 2
Judge William Menges, said pre-
viously that the SOC mostly du-
plicates services already pro-
vided by probation and 2-1-1
United Way of Howard County.
“The whole thing is being
ramrodded into operation with-
out any pre-planning or
pre-preparation being done.
That creates a potential for huge
problems,” said Menges. His cri-
tiques have been widely dis-
puted by Wyman and others as-
sociated with Turning Point.
Nonetheless, local officials are
hopeful the start of Turning
Point will build upon the brief
improvement seen during the
year’s first quarter.
Howard County experienced
five confirmed overdose deaths
From Jan. 1 to March 31, a ma-
jor drop from the same time
period last year and a ray of
hope for a community coming
off its worst year for drug over-
doses in county history.
Notably, a report distributed
April 17 by Howard County
Coroner Steven Seele said that
none of the five overdose fatali-
ties included opiates. In compar-
ison, he counted 15 overdose
deaths in last year’s first quarter,
10 of which included opiate-re-
lated drugs like heroin or Fenta-
nyl.
In total, 2017 saw a year-end
count of 44 drug overdose
deaths, making it by far the
deadliest year for overdoses in
Howard County history, surpass-
ing the previous high of 34 in
2015.
“Is [Turning Point] going to
solve the whole problem? Abso-
lutely not, because this problem
wasn’t created overnight,” said
Wyman during a State of the
County address.
“This problem was created
over years on the opioid side,
but we’ve had substance abuse
for a long, long time. So this is a
piece of the puzzle.”
SYSTEMS OF CARE OPENS
HOWARD COUNTY FACILITY HAS OUTPOURING OF REQUESTS, SAY OFFICIALS
NEW OFFICES:
Turning Point,
Howard County’s Systems of
Care program, opened
Monday, April 30. Pictured are
the program’s offices at 618 S.
Main St.
PUBLIC CONCERN:
The public listens during a town hall meeting in
November 2017 to the plans to incorporate multifaceted Systems
of Care (SOC) to combat opioid addiction and substance abuse in
local communities. (
Kelly Lafferty Gerber | Kokomo Tribune)
