A culturally minded care center to support older Asians and seniors with chronic health conditions opened in Santa Clara County as the North East Medical Services’ Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) on Friday.
The nonprofit community health center is intended to help people over the age of 55 live at home and in their communities, rather than in nursing facilities. It focuses on caring for those with limited English proficiency by providing linguistically and culturally appropriate support, organizers say.
“Our care teams are deeply rooted in and actually recruited from the communities we serve,” NEMS Board Chair Anne Brandon said. “They speak the languages, honor the cultures, and build trusting relationships with participants and their families.”
The demand for such services is expected to grow. Adults over the age of 60 are projected to account for 26% of Santa Clara County’s population by 2030, according to the California Department of Aging.
Brandon, speaking at the health center’s opening Friday, recalled patients the program has served, including an 82-year-old woman struggling with malnutrition, whom the center helped return to a healthy weight. In another case, a man’s life was saved by early stroke detection when the center’s physical therapist noticed he was experiencing arm weakness, she said.
“Our care teams are deeply rooted in and actually recruited from the communities we serve. They speak the languages, honor the cultures, and build trusting relationships with participants and their families.” Anne Brandon, NEMS Board Chair
Santa Clara County District 3 Supervisor Otto Lee said he personally appreciated the program’s focus on autonomy for older people.
“See, my dad’s turning 88 this year — very auspicious numbers — but they are also showing me how much time I need to spend more with him,” Lee said.
District 2 Supervisor Betty Duong underscored the importance of “fighting every single day to preserve our Medicaid, our health care, our social services,” especially in a community with high rates of poverty and food insecurity among seniors.
Duong also voiced appreciation for the support NEMS, which launched in San Francisco’s Chinatown in 2021, provides for the Asian American community.
“I’ve lived in this district — this community — my whole life. My mom and dad came in 1979 as refugees of the Vietnam War, and Santa Clara County — San Jose — welcomed them with open arms,” she said. “It’s no surprise that what started out in Chinatown is now here also in Little Saigon.”
Following the ribbon cutting, a team of lion dancers jumped and whirled to live gong music, leading the community into the newly opened center. As the lions danced through the brightly lit white walls, pink blossom trees, and indoor greenery, NEMS President Eddie Chan fed them Napa cabbage, thus signaling an opening of wealth, prosperity, and good fortune.