Growing Older, Staying Home: What the PACE Program Means for Our Neighbors
There is a particular kind of worry that quietly settles over a family as a parent or grandparent grows older. It rarely arrives all at once. It comes in small moments — a missed dose of medicine, a fall that didn't quite happen but nearly did, one more long drive across town to one more specialist. And beneath all of it sits a heavy, unspoken question: How long can Mom stay in her own home?
Growing Older, Staying Home: What the PACE Program Means for Our Neighbors
There is a particular kind of worry that quietly settles over a family as a parent or grandparent grows older. It rarely arrives all at once. It comes in small moments — a missed dose of medicine, a fall that didn't quite happen but nearly did, one more long drive across town to one more specialist. And beneath all of it sits a heavy, unspoken question: How long can Mom stay in her own home?
For generations, the answer too often came down to a hard choice between independence and care — as if a person had to surrender one to receive the other. This month, the Rotary Club of Davenport was honored to learn about a program working to change that. At a recent meeting, Ty Montoya, Community Liaison with UnityPoint Health, shared the story of the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly, better known as PACE — and the very real difference it is making for older adults right here in our community.
Care That Comes to the Person
PACE is built on a simple but powerful idea: that growing older should not mean leaving the home you love. The UnityPoint Health PACE Senior Care center in Bettendorf — the first program of its kind in the Quad Cities — brings together, under a single roof, the wide range of support an older adult may need to keep living independently. A medical clinic, primary and specialty care, physical and occupational therapy, nutritious meals, recreation and socialization, and reliable transportation to and from the center are all coordinated by one dedicated team.
The program serves residents of Scott, Muscatine, and Clinton counties who are 55 or older and who, without that support, might otherwise face moving into a nursing facility. Instead of asking families to assemble that care piece by piece — a ride here, an appointment there, a worry everywhere — PACE wraps it into one coordinated plan, with the clear goal of helping people remain safely in their own homes for as long as possible.
The Human Story Behind the Program
It is easy to talk about senior care in the language of services and eligibility. But what stayed with our members was something simpler and more human.
It is the relief in a daughter's voice when she learns her father will not have to leave the house he built. It is the morning a participant looks forward to — not a clinic visit to endure, but a place to share a meal, play a game of cards, and be known by name. It is the quiet dignity of waking up in your own bedroom, surrounded by a lifetime of photographs and memories, and knowing that help is there when you need it.
Programs like PACE remind us that independence and care are not opposites. With the right support, they can be the same thing.
Why This Matters to Rotary
The motto we carry is Service Above Self, and few things express it more plainly than caring for the neighbors who came before us — the people who built our community, raised our families, and now deserve to age with the dignity and comfort of home. Learning about PACE was a reminder of how much good is already being done in our own backyard, and of the partners working every day to make our community a place where people can grow old well.
We are grateful to UnityPoint Health for sharing their work with us, and we encourage any family wondering about care for an older loved one to learn more about PACE Senior Care in Bettendorf.
