LTC providers urged to utilize clinical assessment and intervention offered by S-COPE (1-855-718-2699)

In September, Ombudsman McCracken wrote a letter to all long-term care communities encouraging them to utilize the Statewide Clinical Outreach Program for the Elderly (S-COPE), a program developed by the NJ Division of Mental Health and Addiction Services (under the NJ Department of Human Services) and implemented by Trinitas Hospital.  S-COPE is a program that has been designed specifically to provide specialized clinical consultation, assessment and intervention for older adults who have primary diagnoses of dementia with behavioral disturbances, and who are at risk of psychiatric hospitalization.

Its purpose is two-fold: to provide individual resident assessment before these situations reach a crisis point, and to provide education for facility staff to better handle these situations in the future.  S-COPE representatives are available to provide assistance to LTC providers 24 hours a day, seven days a week, including holidays.

The Office of the Ombudsman for the Institutionalized Elderly (OOIE) fields many cases where elderly residents with dementia and/or mental illness have behavioral problems.  Often we find that interventions could have occurred much earlier to minimize the serious disruption caused to the elderly resident, other residents of the facility, and facility staff.

S-COPE can be reached at 1-855-718-2699.