By Gretchen Keiser

The renovation of Immaculate Heart of Mary convent into a personal care home for 15 elderly people will begin in June and the home is expected to be open this fall.

This is one of the projects that is being paid for through the $7.2 million capital funds drive held recently.

While the personal care home will be serving a small number of people, Father Jacob Bollmer, executive director of Catholic Social Services, said, “I feel a dream has come true,” because after 16 years as head of the department he is seeing a residence serving the elderly open up in the archdiocese.

“One minority most often neglected is the elderly, who are often not heard in terms of what their needs really are,” he said. “Unless someone takes their interest to heart, they’re bypassed.”

The personal care home is “just one attempt, just part of the boarder need our elderly Catholics have in the archdiocese,” he said, mentioning senior citizen housing as a need that remains untouched.

A personal care home is a particular type of place for the elderly, which is designed to serve “frail elderly” – those who are too weak or elderly to continue living on their own in apartments or houses, but who are not in need of 24-hour skilled care provided by a full-fledged nursing home.

Those who live in the personal care home will have their own bedrooms, but will share other living areas. There will be a 24-hour staff at the home, headed by a home manager. Meals will be provided, laundry will be taken care of and there will be planned social activities for the residents. Mass will be celebrated in the convent chapel. The rest of the staff will include a social worker, a cook and a maid, working part-time.

In addition, volunteers will be used to help with activities and volunteer nurses will be asked to assist by doing basic health screening, such as blood pressure tests on a regular basis.

The personal care home is a project of Catholic Social Services and will be under the supervision of Sister Teresa Termini, C.S.J., who directs the department’s services for the elderly.

Sensitive to the many and varied needs of the elderly in the archdiocese, Sister Teresa stressed the particular nature of the personal care home which will be helpful to some elderly, but not to all.

“It is really for frail elderly. I don’t think we can stress that enough,” she said.

“We want to help those we can help. Because of the nature of the program, we will not be able to help some because they need nursing care,” she said. On the other hand, some elderly are “independent enough to live in an apartment” and do not yet need their meals prepared or someone available 24 hours a day.

The convent, which had been used as a residence by the Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart at one time and, most recently, as the center of the parish religious education offices and activities, was purchased from Immaculate Heart of Mary by the archdiocese.

Renovations, which will include adding an elevator, altering the kitchen and making the building more easily accessible to the elderly, will be done over the summer. The bids for renovation work are scheduled to be opened May 25.

The ongoing costs of the personal care home will be borne by an endowment fund which will be established with some money from the capital funds drive, and by monthly fees which will be paid by residents. The fees will be set on a sliding scale according to income.

The endowment fund was planned to ensure that there won’t be a need for a diocesan subsidy of the program, said Steve Brazen, executive assistant to Father Bollmer.

The fees which will be charged have been kept as low as possible, he said. The residence will be made up of people of varying economic levels and its success is dependent upon keeping it economically mixed, he said.

The monthly fees will range from $400 a month to $850 a month. However, provision has been made to assist low-income people who would not be able to meet the $400 payment, Brazen said. Through a federal program entitled Alternative Living Services, financial support will be obtained for those who cannot afford the payment.

In addition to being economically mixed, the home will be open to the handicapped. Two ground floor rooms will be reserved for elderly with handicaps.

While the program is located on the grounds of Immaculate Heart of Mary parish, it will be an archdiocesan project and open to people living anywhere in the archdiocese.

Those who are interested in applying for residence in the home for themselves, or those who would like to sponsor an elderly relative or friend are asked to contact Catholic Social Services at 881-6571. Phone inquiries will be taken throughout June and follow-up work will begin in July.