Faith Action Long-Term Care (LTC) Taskforce Report

Dr. Clementina D. Ceria-Ulep, Chair

For 2021, Long Term Care Task Force is focusing on the following:

1. Care Giver Training and Certified Nurses Aide (CNA) Training:  a. Caregiver Training. A volunteer, Regina Rivera, also an RN, will do the training in mobility, hygiene, range of motion, and nutrition, feeding and care of persons with medical conditions such as dementia, and care/nutrition for diabetics.  Tentative venue for training:  Our Lady of the Mount Church. b. CNA Training. Eleven persons interested in becoming nurses’ assistants attended an informational session at Our Lady of the Mount Church on 2/20/20.  Care giver and CNA trainings are on hold until COVID-19 restrictions are lifted. Aloha Nursing Rehab and & Rehab Center; Alu Like, & Maunalani Care Home are potential funders.
2. Legislation 2021. We are pushing for $1.5 million funding of the Kupuna Caregivers Program. Our partners in this effort are The Kupuna Caucus and the Alzheimer’s Association
3. Aging in Place Community: Ibasho Café concept. An Ibasho virtual training on June 13, 2020 was presented by Dr. Emi Kiyota, creator of Ibasho .  It was well received by representatives of many Hawaii organizations.   Faith Action, the University of Hawaii SEED grant, & donations by attendees paid for the presentation.

Given the high level of interest by Hawaii organizations in creating Ibasho in Hawaii, and the Ibasho Board’s interest in bringing it to Hawaii, Hawaii was chosen as one of three pilot sites in the United States– San Francisco, CA and Colorado.  Bringing Ibasho to Hawaii will cost $48,000 for 8 months; and $66,000 for 12 months.  The costs include education/workshop presentations and monthly meetings with Dr. Kiyota.  At this time, the focus for the Taskforce is to seek funding.  Potential funders being sought include the Atherton Family Foundation, CARES Act Fund, Hawaii Community Foundation, Lion’s Club, UH SEED grant, Weinberg Foundation.  

Clem, Peggy Perkinso, Ashleigh Loa, and  & Lauren-Jessica Urban Higuchi are taking the lead with the preparation of the grant applications to the various funders.

Members of the FA LTC are diverse—former & active interns, representatives from five FA units, and other stakeholders.  Members of the FA LTC include FA interns—former and active (Tani Kagesa, Whitney Kim, Kiki Mills); representatives from:  Church of the Crossroads (Eldon Wegner); Kokua Council (Barbara Service), Keolumana UMC (Deanna Espinas), Our Lady of the Mount Church (Clementina D. Ceria-Ulep), St. John Vianney (Kathy Jaycox). Honorary members include Rick Tabor (Generations Magazine, Rotary Club); Lauren—Jessica Urban Higuchi, (graduate student from Hilo), Gary Simon (AARP Volunteer President). Also participating are University of Hawaii at Manoa (UHM) faculty and graduate student—Dr. Margaret (Peggy) Perkinson ,and Uyanga Batzogs, PhD student in Social Work from Mongolia.