SALEM NEWS

Life Coping Inc. brings independence to seniors

BY NATHAN HURST >>>

Francis Mlocek is a vibrant, quick-witted, young-at-heart senior citizen that doesn’t let her aging body get in her way.

She’s not at all the type of person you’d expect to see in a nursing home, and thanks to the help she receives from Nashua-based Life Coping, Inc., she won’t be taking up residence with her peers anytime soon.

But until she met Deborah Swift, her case manager at Life Coping, she may very well have had to leave the home she has know for years. Mlocek lives with her brother Emil who she said has been confined to a wheelchair due to medical issues.

Before she got help from Swift, Mlocek was taking care of her brother in addition to keeping up her household, which she said was becoming increasingly difficult as she became older.

“It feels like a burden has been lifted,” Mlocek said of the help she’s received from Life Coping. “I’m so grateful for all they have done for me and my brother.”

Mlocek is one of more than 900 senior citizens served by Life Coping, a case management non-profit agency that spreads its reach to almost all corners of the state. Case managers such as Swift spend time with clients and determine what medical and other care needs they have.

Services Life Coping can help secure for their clients include everything from home hospice care nursing to errand running services.

Mlocek has been set up with a number of helping services. Currently, she and her brother get regular visits from nurses and caretakers who help them with everyday medical care and housework that probably would go undone otherwise.

They also receive utility assistance, which helps them pay their gas and electric bills. But Mlocek said one aspect of her care that has been most helpful is help with paying for medication.

“Before it was choosing between peanut butter and medication,” she said. “Most of my financial resources were depleted just from the cost of the medicines.”

Ellen Crurelop, a Merrimack native who originally began a career in the field of nursing, founded Life Coping to provide service-oriented advocacy to area seniors in 1993. In 1998, the agency began to take on more outsourcing contracts for home health care case management from the state of New Hampshire, which began piloting their outsourcing program in 1986.

In 2000, the state completed its shift to outsourcing to agencies such as Life Coping for clients such as Mlocek.

Crurelop said that this new system of case management results in a better level of care for her clients.

“We have no financial stake in the care process,” Crurelop said. “And because of that, we can help find what the best options are for people without having any kind of conflicting interest.”

Although the majority of what the she called “adult protective services” are now outsourced to Life Coping and four other agencies throughout the Granite State, Crurelop said the state still holds high standards for the services offered.

“There is heavy oversight and quality assurance into everything,” Crurelop said. “Policies and procedures are administered by the state as well. Everyone and everything is accounted for.”

Life Coping has case managers located throughout the state that keep in contact with the organization’s main office in Nashua on a daily basis.

Swift, who manages cases in the towns of Salem, Pelham and Windham in addition to others, is based out of the Nashua office.

Although she’s only been at the job for six months, Swift said that working for Life Coping has been one of “the most rewarding things” she’s ever done.

“It’s such as great feeling getting to know and help all of these people,” she said.

Swift keeps in close contact with all of her clients. When Mlocek suffered an injury a few months ago and had to go to the hospital for care, Swift was one of the first people by her side.

“I think people should support services like this,” Mlocek said. “I wish I had help like this sooner.”

Swift said one of the biggest problems for people looking for care like Mlocek’s is that they don’t know they qualify or where to even look for help.

“People would be surprised how many services are available,” Swift said.

For residents of Salem and Windham, a call to the Salem district office of the Department of Health and Human Services can get them on the track to getting approved for Medicaid/Medicare funding and starting to receive at-home care and case management from agencies such as Life Coping.

Residents of Pelham should call the Nashua district office of DHHS.
For Mlocek, the improvement in her life that she’s experienced since Life Coping came on the scene has been nothing short of “wonderful.”

“I know they’re God’s angels,” she said with a smile. “They’re just hiding their wings.”