Community
Care
Community Care, a collaboration between Island Health, Inc., and the
Chronic Illness Advisory Board of the Dukes County Health Council, is
a new project dedicated to providing non-medical services to Martha’s
Vineyard residents between the ages of 18 and 65 who have serious, long-term,
challenging illness.
The program is still in the design phase, but its organizers hope that
by the winter of 2004, trained volunteers will be working to help connect
clients to an appropriate primary care home and providing the following
basic services:
Companionship (through activities such as reading the newspaper)
Transportation and escort-type help (on outings with the client,
such as going to a medical appointment or to the grocery store)
Recreation (getting out of the house and going someplace with the client
on foot, in the volunteer's car, or on public transportation)
Errands (getting groceries, renting movies, picking up prescriptions,
taking out library books, and getting other items for the client)
Information and referrals for help with bills, home repairs, and other
needs
The program’s organizers hope to spread the word about Community
Care this summer and call for clients in the fall of 2004. Because this
is phase one of the program, all clients will be screened, and the volunteers
almost certainly will not be able to help everyone who asks for assistance.
But every request for help will be considered, and all residents will
be treated with respect and dignity.
Community Care’s mission is to establish an integrated, professional,
relationship-centered support system to provide non-medical services
to Martha’s Vineyard residents who have serious, long-term, challenging
illness, keeping compassion and personal connection our primary responsibility
and respecting always the humanity and privacy of the individuals served.
In providing services and offering information and referrals, Community
Care will work to connect clients to an appropriate primary care base.
For more information, call
508/693-5090 and ask for Community Care on #3
