{"id":245550,"date":"2012-11-09T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-11-09T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/calpace-honors-assemblymember-toni-atkins\/"},"modified":"2012-11-09T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-11-09T08:00:00","slug":"calpace-honors-assemblymember-toni-atkins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/calpace-honors-assemblymember-toni-atkins\/","title":{"rendered":"CalPACE honors Assemblymember Toni Atkins"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ceremony held in Bankers Hill, Atkins committed to fight for senior health care<\/strong><\/p>\n

Por Antonio Rey | Editor SDUN<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"CalPACE
(l to r) St. Paul\u2019s PACE CEO Cheryl Wilson, Assemblymember Toni Atkins and Cal PACE Executive Director Peter Hansel (Courtesy Beck Ellman Heald PR)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

St. Paul\u2019s Program of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) held a small ceremony at their Bankers Hill location to honor Assemblymember Toni Atkins as Legislator of the Year, the fifth award handed out by CalPACE. CalPACE represents all PACE programs throughout California, with two locations in San Diego County.<\/p>\n

Awarded in part for her continual support of focusing on health care for seniors, Atkins was also instrumental in moving a bill through the assembly that would have required the Department of Health Care Services to include PACE as one alternative to Medi-Cal managed care. Assembly Bill 2206 was ultimately not signed by Gov. Jerry Brown, though Atkins said she would continue to advocate for a similar bill in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will stay focused on finding a way to implement and make sure that this program, which saves money,\u201d she said,\u201d[and] does the job that it should do, [making] sure that citizens have a good quality of life. I\u2019m committed to making sure that we continue.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hour-long ceremony focused briefly on the assembly bill, which CalPACE Executive Director Peter Hansel called their \u201ctop legislative priority.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe administration is committed to PACE and ensuring the viability of PACE,\u201d he said. \u201cWe think there is a door to continue to work with the administration and to follow up to make sure we can accomplish the goals.\u201d<\/p>\n

In presenting the award to Atkins, Hansel said the assembly member was a \u201ctrue champion\u201d in keeping PACE at the forefront of the state\u2019s movement to a managed health care system.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to make sure that as the state develops this approach to delivering health care, that PACE continues to be an option,\u201d Hansel said. \u201c[Atkins] has never flinched at any point \u2026 in the legislative process. For that reason, we have elected to honor Assemblymember Atkins as our 2012 Legislator of the Year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CalPACE
(l to r) Assemblymember Toni Atkins and Sen. Christine Kehoe at St. Paul\u2019s PACE (Courtesy Beck Ellman Heald PR)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Atkins said she was humbled by the recognition, and thanked the program participants and CalPACE board members, as well as Sen. Christine Kehoe, who attended the ceremony.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile you brought this piece of legislation to me to introduce, really Sen. Kehoe \u2026 managed and presented this bill in the senate for me. I know that she did a lot because of the commitment to the issue and her understanding of this program,\u201d Atkins said before sharing the award with the senator.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou find partners up in Sacramento \u2026 who do this because they\u2019re passionate and they care about this issue,\u201d Atkins said. \u201cI just want to say what a joy it was to work \u2026 on this bill. You shouldn\u2019t get an award for something like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

A St. Paul\u2019s PACE participant attended the awards ceremony, and spoke about his experience in the program. Richard Brady said he first encountered PACE three years ago when he was close to dying. After coordinating with a hospice program, Brady began working with St. Paul\u2019s on his recovery.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo understand how PACE really works, you have to examine the people who come here. Each of them have different needs,\u201d he said. \u201cPACE, I found, gave me everything that I needed. It\u2019s like a one-stop shop for seniors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Services provided to PACE participants include medical care, ongoing rehabilitative therapies, in-home personal care, day center activities, social case management and transportation. The program serves seniors 55 years of age and older with multiple medical problems who need assistance but wish to remain in their own homes.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a senior, I can tell you it\u2019s difficult to keep up with all the things you need,\u201d Brady said. \u201cWith home health care, I have someone who comes and helps once a week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brady highlighted the \u201ccaring and competent\u201d nurses, saying the day center at St. Paul\u2019s was \u201cthe heart\u201d of the program. The Bankers Hill St. Paul\u2019s PACE is located at 111 Elm St.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a spirit that goes on through PACE. There\u2019s a caring from the people who work here,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a life-saving program.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cheryl Wilson, CEO of the St. Paul\u2019s PACE program, said participants like Brady give purpose to their work. Wilson, who gave the award to Atkins with Hansel, first met the assembly member when Atkins was a council member, and said she had a \u201cspecial heart\u201d for seniors.<\/p>\n

Following Brady\u2019s speech, Atkins praised him for participating.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Brady, you were the best speaker today by far,\u201d Atkins said, \u201cbecause you talked about what this program means in terms of integration and how it gives frail seniors \u2026 the ability to maintain your quality of life, which is exactly as it should be. It\u2019s what every human being and individual deserves.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ceremony held in Bankers Hill, Atkins committed to fight for senior health care By Anthony King | SDUN Editor St. Paul\u2019s Program of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) held a small ceremony at their Bankers Hill location to honor Assemblymember Toni Atkins as Legislator of the Year, the fifth award handed out by CalPACE. […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":245551,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"CalPACE honors Assemblymember Toni Atkins","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11551,11550,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-245550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-news","category-top-stories","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}