Living at Home Block Nurse Program, Inc.

Founded in 1986, Living at Home/Block Nurse Program Inc. has assisted citizens of communities throughout Minnesota by organizing and sustaining locally grown nonprofit Living at Home Network programs. The LAH/BNP model successfully combines neighborhood volunteers with paid nurses and home health aides to help elderly neighbors stay in their homes as long as possible. Forty Living At Home Network programs serve seniors and their caregivers in communities throughout Minnesota.

Programs

Today, when private and public agencies around the country are struggling to reconcile needs with overdrawn budgets, Living at Home Network programs (LAHN) show how community initiative can re-design services to make them less expensive and more effective. The LAHN is a community Program that draws upon professional and volunteer services of local residents to provide information, social and support services, nursing and other professional services to elderly neighbors who might otherwise be admitted to nursing homes. With a goal of "doing whatever it takes" to help elders stay in homes and communities they love, the Program puts fewer restrictions on what constitutes "care" than most other organizations. The LAHN does not duplicate available existing services. It organizes needed services with a client-specific plan of care enabling individuals to remain at home as long as possible. A principle of the Program is that nurses, community volunteers, and Program managers and coordinators live in the community whenever possible. The Program links with a nursing agency for the employment of Program nursing staff and for licensed access to private insurance, and public entitlement programs. The Living At Home Block Nurse Program,Inc assists programs with issues like: negotiations with nursing service partners, managing grants, capacity building, and assistance with funding.