Psynergy Programs’ three founding partners receive recognition from Sacramento County on the opening of Vista Esperanza. From left, Psynergy’s Jean Edwards, Sacramento County District 3 Supervisor Rich Desmond, Sue Frost, Sacramento County District 4 Board of Supervisors, and Psynergy’s Arturo Uribe and Michael Weinstein. Photo courtesy of Psynergy Programs Inc.

 

NORTH HIGHLANDS, CA (MPG) - Psynergy Programs Inc., known as the gold standard in California for its residential care of adults coping with severe mental illness, has opened its first residential facility for the elderly (RCFE) in conjunction with the State of California’s Community Care Expansion (CCE) initiative. The CCE Capital Expansion program was established through Assembly Bill 172 (Chapter 696, 2021) as part of the state’s interagency approach to combating homelessness.

Vista Esperanza is Psynergy’s fifth residential project in California and its first to focus on caring for mentally challenged individuals over 59 ½, who have “aged out” of the adult system of care, serving 18 to 59 ½.

Vista Esperanza is located at 5240 Jackson Street in North Highlands, near Sacramento. The project was half complete when the Covid pandemic and associated spiraling costs brought construction to a virtual standstill in 2021. When the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) announced the  Community Care Expansion program in December of 2022, Psynergy Programs applied for grant  funding to finish the facility, making the 54\bed Vista Esperanza one of the first projects in California  to meet the CCE goal of funding the acquisition, construction and/or rehabilitation of adult and  senior care facilities that serve state-supported adults and seniors at risk of or experiencing  homelessness, a top priority of Governor Gavin Newsom. To date, nearly $570 million in CCE funding has been awarded to 61 projects around the state.

According to Lynda Kaufmann, Psynergy’s vice president of development and public relations, “We wanted to do an RCFE project because our existing clients needed it, along with those we had to decline, due to age, ambulation or medical conditions.  As clients aged out of their placement with Psynergy, they were being moved into skilled nursing facilities or locked settings at increased cost.  California did not have many assisted living programs with mental health services. Individuals with catheters, colostomy bags, or who were insulin dependent and could not do their own finger sticks and insulin therapy were also without places to go.”   

Vista Esperanza meets that need with 24-hour nursing care, along with a high level of security and social support, plus mental health care. The facility has many private offices to accommodate home visits from Psynergy’s psychiatrists, mental health rehab specialists and others from their outpatient clinics. The project also has four beds available for non-ambulatory individuals.   

The Vista Esperanza model of care was born in October of 2013 at a meeting between Psynergy and several of the counties it serves. The county partners determined then that the needs of older adults were a growing concern. Vista Esperanza was designed to support the universal goal of moving older adults diagnosed with severe mental illness to a least\restrictive level of care, avoiding locked settings and emergency rooms when possible. This required developing a program to meet the needs of individuals with complex behavioral and medical issues, many of whom were diagnosed with substance abuse disorders.  

 Pictured here is Vista Esperanza’s front elevation. Photo courtesy of Psynergy Programs Inc.

“We already had some senior adults living in our facilities, as there are very few properties in California that specialize in seniors with a mental health diagnosis,” said Psynergy founding partner and CFO Mike Weinstein.

“We wanted to specialize in that population, as we had had several requests from our county partners who had no place to send seniors. We believe our model, using CCE funds, will allow older adults to move from hospitals and shelters directly into community settings, bypassing locked care completely. Older adults who are homeless and residing in shelters now have a path to safe and supportive long\term housing.”

Vista Esperanza serves society’s most vulnerable individuals through its approach to wellness and recovery, including specialized health care, frequent one-on-one support and supervision, and complex care planning to maintain residency in the community.  Residents greatly benefit from working with staff that can provide counseling, meals, activities and community involvement to support their psychiatric conditions, achieved in an intelligently designed and secure two-acre campus with appealing residential features. Psynergy approaches the journey of client recovery with a philosophy of wholeness in spirit, nutrition, fitness, environment and therapy – its new vision of community life.

“California’s Community Care Expansion (CCE) program is expanding the state’s housing and care continuum to help prevent the cycle of homelessness or unnecessary institutionalization,” said Hanna Azemati, Deputy Director of the Housing and Homelessness Division, California Department of Social Services.  “Through CCE projects across the state – such as Vista Esperanza, which will provide 54 new beds for older adults experiencing or at risk of homelessness – we are creating new, local housing and care options for those most in need.”