"the People's Paths!" Cherokee News Path - Cherokee Elder Care Participants

***"Cherokee Elder Care participant Juanita Seaton makes valentines for veterans to be delivered this week to local and area vets."***

TAHLEQUAH, OK — Participants at Cherokee Elder Care have been busy creating Valentines for veterans to be delivered this week to local and area vets.

“We are honored to give back to our community by making valentines for our veterans,” said Katina Dugger, Community Education Liaison for Cherokee Elder Care. “Our hope is that the veterans have as much fun receiving and reading the valentines as we did making them.”

Some of the valentines made by the group are displayed in the Cherokee Elder Care facility to honor the enrolled participants that are veterans.

“At Cherokee Elder Care, we currently have four veterans enrolled and are amazed by the stories they share about the time they served their country,” Dugger said.

Juanita Seaton of Tahlequah, the oldest Cherokee Elder Care participant to date, was among those participants who helped make the valentines for veterans.

“My sons were overseas at one time and I know the vets like mail,” Seaton, who proudly states she is ľ Cherokee, said.

Since opening in 2008, Cherokee Elder Care serves 17 enrolled participants and is the only program in Oklahoma that is part of the national Programs of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) and the only one in the country sponsored by a Native American tribe. The program is an option for anyone who is at least 55 years of age, certified as needing some level of nursing home level care by a Department of Human Services (DHS) nurse and lives safely in a home environment within the program’s service area. Participants in the program do not have to be a Cherokee Nation citizen or Native American to enroll.

As an all-inclusive care program, those enrolling in the program must agree for Cherokee Elder Care to be their primary medical provider and will provide all prescribed medications, therapy, nutrition counseling, home health services, social activities, transportation, laboratory services, social services, medical equipment, hospitalization, nursing care and adult day health care. Dr. Douglas Young, one of the only geriatric physicians in the Tahlequah area, will be their primary care physician and leads a team of health care providers and specialists in the care of each participant. For more information about Cherokee Elder Care, call 918-453-5554.