Upper Arlington STAY UA Program Receives
Community Partnership Award from ICMA
The International City/County Management Association (ICMA) has named the City of Upper Arlington a recipient of a 2011 Community Partnership Program of Excellence Award for the "Services to Age in Your Upper Arlington" - or STAY UA - program.
The ICMA Community Partnership Awards recognize "...programs or processes that demonstrate innovation, excellence and success in multi-participant involvement between and/or among a local government and governmental entities, private sector businesses, individuals, or nonprofit agencies to improve the quality of life for residents or provide more efficient and effective services."
STAY UA initially began as a pilot program in 2009, and immediately began making a meaningful difference in the lives of the community's elderly and frail residents when they most needed help. Today, STAY UA is an established program embedded in the Fire Division, in partnership with local home healthcare agency InCare, a subsidiary of National Church Residences.
Thanks to STAY UA, when called to the home of residents having issues living independently, the City's Fire Division emergency responders can refer them to the STAY UA Service Coordinator to help identify and connect them with appropriate support resources. This approach provides the missing link between first responders and appropriate existing community support services that can help prevent premature admission to more costly institutionalized care. Before STAY UA, over a six-month period more than 260 emergency calls for help turned out to not be of an emergency nature. Once the program was in place, STAY UA helped reduce these types of calls to less than 10 over a 10-month period, with the service coordinator logging 184 referrals to appropriate services on behalf of the elderly residents involved.
Linda Mauger, a former City County member who was integral to the establishment of STAY UA, was unequivocal in her reaction to the news. "It's just one more validation that STAY UA is the right thing to do. We should all be so proud of the impact it makes in our residents' lives."
The formal recognition will take place in September at ICMA's annual conference in Milwaukee, with inclusion in the fall issue of Public Management magazine.
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