I am.. I am so in admiration of her determination and her commitment to doing the very best she can every day despite a disability which is cerebral palsy and also rheumatoid arthritis.

So Kim, when did you move to the St. Paul's Plaza Independent Living? Three or four years ago. And what do you enjoy about living here? The pool and socializing with people. I love to swim, of course. I learned how to swim before I learn how to walk. Because I didn't start walking until I was five, because I had a foot deformity.

You know, I first actually met Kim Miller. at the Friars Road YMCA swimming pool. And I didn't know that it was Kim Miller at that time. And then some years ago now this young lady moved into the Plaza senior care living and it was evident that she had some challenges and as soon as I saw her swimming in that pool behind me here at the Plaza, I knew it was the same girl that I'd seen swimming at Friars Road in the YMCA. I can see him at the pool all day and this feels free. You know, like I can just swim forever.  Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays are swim. and Tuesdays I do chairs exercise  and I walk I time myself walking from my room down the hallway and back. Do you see how long it takes me?  So she'll come up to me and she'll say, Janet, guess what? I walked from my room to the elevator to the reception down past the pub and back again and I did today in seventeen. With a big grin on her face and then she goes, yeah!!! I like to try and need to think that's new. Any challenge that you can give me. You're truly an inspiration to so many people. and we really just love having you here at the Plaza and I wanted to give you a special award this year. That you can have in your room and share with your family because you're one of my Senior Fitness Superstar for 2022. Yes, you are and they're you are. 

The St. Paul's PACE Supportive Housing is providing housing for our participants and for the homeless community in San Diego through an At Risk Program. We service only seniors fifty five and older. We find that if you, you feel safe and you have a place where you can cook your own meals and have safety of locking your door so you can sleep at night. That people once they move in the first night, they sleep a very long time. It just felt so good just to sleep and just know that I don't have to worry about my purse. You know, I just felt safe. It's just a good feeling just to, you know, have somebody smile at you and say hello and, you know, just be there for the support and offer support, so i love it. I really do. I'm going on three months that I've been here and i love it. I feel good again, you know, I mean, I was bouncing from one place to another. I stayed in a car a few times. My friends car, it was a nice experience, but like I said, you know when I met Mark and Donna and my friend kind of help me out. It was a blessing. I have responsibilities again, makes a person get busy. makes you feel human again, you know, normal. I felt like it was it was very overwhelming. So just the fact of knowing that now I have a roof over my head, I feel safe and, you know i'm in a great environment. PACE isn't far away.

Nicole was the first angel in my life from PACE. She's just made me feel okay, because I was always worried about like where would I go next. Tell me what it is about PACE that you like? People a great personality is a big heart. I can feel that, you know and I love PACE. From the doctor down to the drivers. It just keeps me healthy. Being a PACE member is keeping me alive basically, that's how I put that.

They will build a community that's probably a more productive community. There's social workers, this activity, people on site. And we try to get people to come out of their rooms and interact and have a healthier lifestyle. It's like everyone just welcomes you. I mean, everyone and it says it's a good feeling, you know, especially being homeless and, you know, a lot of people just look down on, you know. They don't understand that anybody could be homeless, you could become homeless. You just don't know the situation.

It's been very helpful to me. I mean, it can help a lot of because a lot of people do need help. We help them get equipment. we help them get glasses. We help them get hearing aids. We transport them back and forth for all their appointments. I love it. I really do. I think, I thank you guys for, you know, being here. Go sign up and you have your paperwork ready and do what you need to do and and you will be having your place soon. Yeah, it works!

For more information visit https://www.stpaulspace.org/

Our locations:

PACE San Diego
PACE Chula Vista
PACE El Cajon
PACE North County

Hi, I'm Latressa Downey. I'm the administrator here at St. Paul's Villa at Bankers Hill where we offer our Reflections Memory Care Program. Recently, St. Paul's conducted a study into Dementia and Memory Loss, and we not only looked at the care we provide our residents, but also the other many facets of living with this.

These include family involvement, the transition from home to community, education for loved ones, engagement and so much more. As a result, we developed Reflections, a memory care program we're truly proud of which offers a model of care that addresses every aspect of an individual's wellbeing. 

Hi, I'm Andrea Rojas and I provide the Life Enrichment Services for Reflections Memory Care Program at St. Paul's Plaza in Chula Vista. For 10 years, I've had the privilege of helping seniors and their families navigate the world of dementia. And I've seen firsthand benefits of our Reflections Memory Care Program. I'm specially proud of our Reflections’ pillars of care which includes compassionate transitioning, family engagement, high quality caregivers standards, and specialized social enrichment.

With these four pillars of care, you can be confident that your loved ones, physical, mental, and spiritual needs will be met. In fact, they will begin to thrive as a live life to the fullest. With Reflections you no longer have to navigate this world alone. St. Paul's is here to help. 

If you're looking for a memory care community for your loved one, please reach out to me or anyone on our team. We have two beautiful reflection communities right here in San Diego, and we are ready to welcome you..

KUSI News Anchor: As retiring after more than three decades on the job. After the break, we'll be speaking with Cheryl Wilson about her upcoming retirement and the search for her successor.

Commercial: Roses are red, full tiles are blue when you're upgrading your home. How about your whole..

KUSI News Anchor: 30 years, and now she's retiring. So joining me now is CEO and President of St. Paul's Senior Services, of course, Cheryl Wilson! Congrats to you, Cheryl. 

Cheryl Wilson: Thank you. 

KUSI News Anchor: I have to ask, well, when did you start working? When you were 10 years old?

Cheryl Wilson: Actually, when I was 12. So this retired is going to be a very new thing for me.

KUSI News Anchor: You know, for people who are not familiar with St. Paul's, um, it's a C it's basically San Diego's largest nonprofit. Please tell us a little bit more about it. 

Cheryl Wilson: Yeah, St. Paul's, uh, came in to be in 1960 and we've been serving seniors since then. We now serve multiple locations in the county and we also serve multiple different styles and types of seniors. Seniors who are have very frail medical conditions, seniors who are financially disabled and fe.. and seniors who are active and alert and driving and having fun and everything in between.  We also have a Childcare Program where we sort of uh,  babies, two months to six years of age. We're very proud of that program. 

KUSI News Anchor: I've actually visited St Paul's in it. It just seems like such a great, um, a great area and a great spot I should say. And you really took it from a small thing to such a large establishment helping so many people.

Cheryl Wilson: Yes. We, uh, started with two buildings. Uh, we now have, um, 11 main buildings and we also have a partnership with eight buildings for seniors who were formerly homeless. So we have certainly grown in San Diego. 

KUSI News Anchor: So for people who don't know your background, I mean, you have been, I believe a nurse, a hospital administrator. Can you just kind of tell us about your experience? 

Cheryl Wilson: I was born in Australia and did my nurse's training in Australia, and then traveled around the world and met my husband who convinced me to come to the United States and marry him. Best decision I ever made. Um, and I've been very blessed with opportunities where I could serve at a higher level throughout my career. I've also been blessed to work with amazing teams that have been supportive as we've worked together to carry out the mission, not only of St Paul's, but of other hospitals and agencies that I've worked with. I've been very, very blessed to have. It was a joyful experience.

KUSI News Anchor:  And you really have dedicated your, almost your entire life to helping seniors. It's such an important thing. Um, sometimes we forget about that entire community. Now there's a nationwide search for your replacement. Are you helping in this search and, and who do you think would be or what are the characteristics of a qualified a person to take your shoes here? 

Cheryl Wilson: Yes, it is a nationwide search. The board has undertaken and, uh, no I'm not involved because I have had my time at St. Paul's. We are leaving St. Paul's in great circumstances with a grateful and wonderful staff and financially viable and doing well even though COVID, we've done so well. Um, but now it is time for a new era. And so no, I'm not involved in the search, but I know that the new person will take St Paul's to the next level, because they're not going to have to come in and fix anything. They're just going to come in and now take the vision even further. 

KUSI News Anch

NBC 7 News Anchors: For the factors have largely resulted in milder symptoms. As we have been reported among people who are fully vaccinated and boosted, but there's still a significantly higher risk to older people, regardless of their vaccination status, NBC 7, Joe Little visited St. Paul's Manor in Bankers Hill, an independent senior living community today to see how they're handling the latest surge of cases.

Joe Little: We're being overwhelmed with stories about Omicron's impact on work, in schools, but it's just the latest nightmare for our parents and grandparents. 

Shirley Doyle: We were so revved up and ready for normal and then Omicron came. 

Joe Little: We all feel just like Shirley Doyle, but during the pandemic, Shirley has already faced too many fears.

Shirley Doyle: I've uh, uh, I've been in a cancer fight. 

Joe Little: It's a lot for anyone let alone a senior. 

Shirley Doyle: Yes. I'm scared. The world is going crazy out there and I can come home. And know that I'm safe.

Joe Little: Shirley lives in St. Paul's Manor in Bankers Hill. 

Cheryl Wilson: These are tough times! 

Joe Little: Cheryl Wilson is the President for St. Paul's Senior Services, retirement homes.

Cheryl Wilson: It's hard on our residents. It's hard on their families, but it's really hard on our staff who just want to care for the people here at St. Paul's.

Joe Little: Wilson Says it's been tough caring for residents, especially after the staff was hit hard with positive cases after the holidays.

Cheryl Wilson: As an administrator, this is what keeps me up at night. What are we going to do?

Joe Little: She says they're once again, following strict rules, no one's allowed to visit unless it's an emergency and there's a booster mandate for employees.

Cheryl Wilson:  And wear your masks, oh, please put on your mask, people. We have to tackle it. We have to be proactive. We have to be upbeat. And we have to know that we can get through this.

Shirley Doyle: We know we're safe. 

Joe Little: Shirley is clearly confident. It helps that she's used to facing her fears. 

Shirley Doyle: I'm cancer-free. Yeah!

Joe Little: That's the good news everyone needs as we started another round in the pandemic.

Shirley Doyle:  We're getting awful tired of it. A

Joe Little: At Bankers Hill.

Shirley Doyle: Awful tired of it.

Joe Little:  Joe Little NBC 7

NBC 7 News Anchors: Stay healthy. I like her. Cheryl Wilson says they are hosting a booster clinic tomorrow for staff and residents.

Jenny Milkowski: View here. Hey, a position elected by her peers Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of St. Paul's Senior Services, Ellen Schmeding takes on a new leadership state position advocating for our local seniors as well as seniors across the state. So, Ellen is with me now. Good morning to you. 

Ellen Schmeding: Good morning! Hi. Thank you, Jenny.

Jenny Milkowski: Um, so this, um, is, is the first ever California elder and disability justice coordinating council in San Diego. Please tell us all about it 

Ellen Schmeding: Well, you know, the governor of California about a year ago released the master plan for aging. And one of the top areas in the plan was to address abuse and neglect. Impacting older adults and persons with disabilities.  So the first meeting is the end of this month, and it's really our job to address the issues of abuse, neglect, fraud, exploitation and to really make California a much better place to live for all seniors. One of the things that happened during the pandemic was a serious social isolation concerns for older adults.  And that is one of the risk factors for abuse. And so looking ever more closely at what we can do to address this. I'll be coming together with advocates, government organization, representatives, and so many more to address these issues. Believe it or not, one out of every six persons over 60 is a victim of some form of abuse. And that's what we're trying to address in California. 

Jenny Milkowski: One out of six. And I legitimately was just going to ask you just how prevalent that seems like a really high number.

Ellen Schmeding: I know it and it's about five million across the nation. So, as I mentioned, social isolation and mental impairments are really two of the risk factors and those are things we can address.

Jenny Milkowski: Now. What, what other, um, things are you seeing? Uh, we're, you know, we're talking about equity inclusion as well for these seniors. Um, what sort of things will you be doing to make that a possibility. 

Ellen Schmeding: To start off with looking at many of the issues that are impacting older adults after COVID being able to get out and about again with the variant searching, that's been a problem, but right before this, and we expect this to end soon. We were able to have events, activities at St. Paul's, bring our seniors back into the mix. Look for ways to engage them and help them find a way to have meeting again in their lives with family friends. And so, I think at a statewide level, we'll be looking at what the risk factors are and how we can address them. Um, you know, I think that just bringing your attention to the issue, helping the everyday person understand what is abuse, what is neglect, how to report it, uh. Having additional resources for the long-term care, ombudsman, but overseas issues in skilled nursing or assisted living including dementia care, looking at, um, our adult protective services statewide that do so much good work, trying to help senior communities and families, um, to really address the issues. So, it's an exciting time moving forward, looking at the state that is making this a priority, I think is a very, very important element. 

Jenny Milkowski: Now, this seems more of like a legal issue, but, um, conservatorships, they've been in the news, you know, recently there've been a lot of documentaries, really shedding light on the elderly who are taken advantage of by these conservatorships. Do you guys delve into that sort of thing where you also try and protect them financially? 

Ellen Schmeding: Yes! You know, um, I previously served as public administrator, public guardian, and I t

Angi: St. Paul's PACE Roving Clinic is finally here and ready to hit the streets to serve our seniors in San Diego. We're so excited to show you around. Dr. Lee, tell us about our clinic on wheels. 

Dr. Lee: Well, if you all remember about a year and a half ago, when pandemic hits San Diego, we were not able to bring in our frail seniors to the clinic. Because of that, we have to develop new and innovative ways to serve them. At that time, we did not have any actual clinic on wheels. What we did was we converted one of our transport vans so we can serve our seniors there. 

Now we have a customized van to serve our seniors. This is specially built so we can serve our seniors. Now we can take this van and take the clinic without doctors or providers or nurses to go to our patient's home so we can serve them better. 

Vena: Hi, my name is Vena, and as you can see, we have everything we need here to safely and securely treat our patients.

We have computer systems in the front and the back. Plenty of storage for whatever we need. We have sinks, a nice, comfortable blood draw station with more storage underneath. An exam chair that fully extends. So it can be used for multiple types of visits. We also have a wheelchair ramp for patients that aren't able to walk up into the van. 

Angi: Eric, aren't you so excited about our new Roving Clinic? 

Eric: Heck. Yes I am. Did you know where the only PACE program doing this?

Angi: Wow, that's amazing. 

Eric: We'll bring the care directly to our patients. Everything from provider visits, health fairs, lab draws, seasonal vaccinations, physical exam, infusion, wound care, and so much more.

Dr. Lee: As you can see, this is a game changer for us, how we care for our participants. In fact, we think this is a future for our care and we can take the clinic or the home and provide senior care at home.

Angi: And there you have it everyone. A game changer. Words from our medical director, Dr. Lee, we're super excited. And we can't wait to get this show on the road.

Rafael Valazquez: My name is Rafael Velasquez. I'm a nurse here at St. Paul's PACE in Chula Vista. Uh, I've been here with, um, St Paul's PACE for about two years, What is PACE.

Jaime Meza: My name is Jaime Meza also a nurse here at PACE Chula Vista clinic. Uh, I've been working for PACE for two years and 11 months. So about to hit that three-year mark.

Working here at PACE Program I know you work with the elderly, you get to experience their different perspective of life. You know, uh, it's a very, uh, very unique, very rewarding. It's connected along with them. It's definitely a unique experience with regard to the patients. 

Rafael Valazquez: Um, it's definitely rewarding, as Jaime said, you know, the stories that you get from them, they've been around longer than you have is fun and it's enjoyable. And they're definitely grateful. I would say, you know, the flexibility that St. Paul's PACE has, um, is great as a nurse. Uh, other places aren't as flexible. You work really closely with like other, uh, departments within PACE, which kind of creates like a camaraderie with the other, with others that you work with. And it kind of creates like a family.

Jaime Meza: Not only do you work with. Coworkers your own nursing corridors, you work with other departments such as rehab or senior social work or dietitians or physical therapy for seniors. And everybody's cool here. Everybody's really comfortable each other. And everybody's just fine. You know, we always it's like you come to work. Yeah, you do work, but you also, you know, you enjoy, we enjoy coming to work.

Rafael Valazquez: Absolutely.

Jaime Meza: We went to the same nurses school actually, but different cohorts, I would see him, but you know, not really no knew him. And, um, next thing, you know, he was working, we were working at the same PACE and it was a man and it just, you know, from there on, we just became buddies and like same interests. Yeah.

Play soccer. We like soccer, you know, we we'd do a lot of. Even outside of PACE we've done. We've went out and it's like my brother almost, you know? Yeah. But then it's me and him are the only male nurses. So I think that's also a special camaraderie that we have. But yeah, no, no, it's awesome. It's been great to work with people.

Uh, my culture, you know, growing up with my family, uh, you know, my parents always taught me to care. You know, you have to respect your elders and you have to care for your elders. For me, every time I worked with one of our participants, it's like, I almost see them as family. You know, like if it was my grandparents, so it just comes so easy to care for them.

Rafael Valazquez: I'm going to be honest. I, when I first, when I was a nurse school, I was like, I did a rotation in Geri and I was like, man, this is not for you. This was a nursing school. And honestly, when, when I started working here, um, is great. And like, kind of said, I mean, especially here in PACE that the patients were just super accepting.

Uh, really grateful for what the service you provide. And, um, I don't know, the stories are, are great. It's, it's good to hear different walks of life and, and it is, it is fun. So I initially, no, I wasn't drawn to this, but once I came here, so. And I think that's really cool. You get people who are like 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, it's like a whole different world, you know, and you kind of get to experience their lives just by hearing them out. And it's, it's kinda cool, you know, just so I