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April is Autism Awareness Month and we'd like to share a special success story with you. Daria, True Care's CDPAP Program Manager, brought to our attention a case that she recently handled. It is a story about a single mother who is caring for her autistic son and came to us for help. Her child has been diagnosed with several mental health problems. She wanted to care for her child at home due to the fact that she had no one else to care for her child and no one who would fully be able to understand and manage her child's special needs. She came into our Brooklyn office asking about our Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP) hoping to enroll her and her son to receive benefits. 

As part of the Care Connection Community Class in conjunction with the Alzheimer's Foundation  of America (AFA), True Care was pleased to facilitate A Matisse-Inspired Workshop. This workshop uses the fine art of Henri Matisse's "Cut-Outs" series as inspiration for a technique we like to call "Painting with Scissors." It was a wonderfully engaging class where those in attendance were clients of our memory care program as well as invited community guests.

If you care for or know someone living with memory impairment, be it Alzheimer's or another form of dementia, you know that it is a condition that is hard to understand. Although we may never fully comprehend what it truly feels like for the individual, there are many ways to learn compassion and how to care for the memory affected loved one in your life. This is a task that the Alzheimer's Foundation of America have taken on through their Care Connection Sunset Series, a program which involves briefly immersing its participants in a virtual reality world where you experience symptoms like blurred vision, hallucinations, and disorientation. 

Since late September 2018, True Care has held a TrueCaregiver Flu Prevention & Resource Fairs for all our HHAs in each of our main offices in Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. Our caregivers got a free flu shot as well as access to a number of services as part of our TrueEDU program. These resources included free ESL courses with JCC of Greater Coney Island, GED classes at Metropolitan College of NY, and banking and financial services from PNC Bank, just to name a few.

The True Care team was honored to receive recognition as one of the most improved agencies for the 2017 Healthfirst Quality Incentive Program for LHCSAs.

This recognition speaks to the successful year that True Care has had. True Care has shown commitment to providing patients with the best quality of care. Together with Healthfirst, True Care has focused on improving the quality of care to patients in a variety of categories including patient satisfaction, positive health outcomes, and high quality of care.

Last month, a few clients and aides of our Memory Care program enjoyed a delightful day at Robert Wagner Park in lower Manhattan. The program's very first meetup, Art in the Park, was a great success. The participants and caregivers supported each other and painted beautiful landscapes with facilitator, Jodie Berman, Director of Programs and Community Engagement for True Care. They learned how to "paint what you see" as they overlooked a breathtaking view of the Hudson River and the Statue of Liberty. They also learned a paint technique called a "wash", where a layer of color is applied using diluted watercolor paint.