Our mission is to enhance the quality of life for seniors by providing information and services that help them live with independence and dignity. We target the oldest, poorest and most frail seniors—those with the fewest resources and the least support.

Founded in 1973 as a community-based volunteer organization in the inner city neighborhood of North Park, ElderHelp of San Diego has grown to become a regional community resource center for seniors and their families. Our main office is located in the heart of San Diego, near where many low-income seniors reside. The addition of three satellite locations in Poway, Point Loma and San Carlos has allowed us to expand our services to residents outside of the city center. Last year, ElderHelp assisted over 5,000 seniors throughout San Diego County.
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One Organization Stepped Forward
During the 1950’s and 60’s seniors in San Diego and throughout the country had very few places to turn when they could no longer care for themselves independently. Many had only two options, some had only one. If you had a family, you might rely on them for emotional, physical or financial support. If you didn’t, it was time to go to a nursing home. During the 1970’s and 80’s the number of nursing home beds in San Diego grew by 30 percent.

In the early 1970’s, fewer than 10 organizations were serving seniors in San Diego County. Most operated federally funded meal programs in churches, recreation centers or schools. Fearing that stomachs were being fed but not souls or spirits, a group of inner city ministers and business leaders convinced the San Diego State University School of Social Work to conduct a needs assessment among elderly living in Mid City. They learned that these neighborhoods contained one of the highest concentrations of low-income seniors living in the county. To respond to the needs of seniors in failing health, poverty and isolation, a small group gathered in 1973to organize a community based agency named Mid City Senior Enterprises.

Working from the basement of a church for the next 12 years, over two dozen programs were offered in response to a growing community need. The organization strove to address the widest range of needs imaginable—food, shelter, companionship, poverty—at the most practical level available. Thousands of seniors found advice and support, but most of all, the agency developed a reputation as the place to turn for help.

Help took many forms in those days including SSI enrollment; USDA commodities distribution; potlucks; a home help registry; senior aide employment; the Mid City Melodiers; counseling; MediCal and Medicare assistance; legal and income tax appointments; shared housing; grocery shopping; information & referral; durable medical equipment loans; friendly visitors; daily telephone reassurance calls; a monthly newsletter; blood pressure screening; SHARE; and senior gleaners who gathered surplus produce.

All services were free and the programs were run by a small staff with the help of many volunteers. Nearly 95% of the budget came from government funding with the rest from donations. Within ten years, over 1,000 seniors were helped each year.

A Decade of Growth 1985-1995
Over the next 10 years, dozens of new organizations, both public and private, sprang to life. One San Diego County service directory contained several hundred service listings including an array of housing, personal care, health care services, day care and respite programs, nutrition services, counseling, assisted living facilities, in-home care, transportation and escort services.

During this period, Mid City Senior Enterprises undertook a deliberate effort to redefine its services and programs concentrating on what seniors needed most, eliminating programs which were duplicative or no longer necessary, and developing new approaches to link seniors with community care options. The agency moved from a church on 48th Street to a storefront on 30th Street. The site was acquired and renovated using a combination of private funds and two federal block grants from the City of San Diego. The current site in North Park represents an investment of nearly $1 million. In 1991, the agency changed its name to ElderHelp of San Diego.

The delivery of community based care services became more complicated during this period, mainly due to wide discrepancies in individual communities’ varying health and social services offerings. Most organizations serving the elderly developed “niche” markets including home delivered meals, adult day care, nutrition services, or Alzheimer’s treatment centers. Services available in some areas were not offered in others.

Further complicating the picture, the long-term needs of seniors increased while at the same time payment for services covered under Medicare, private health insurance, and managed care became more limited. Fee-for-service programs began to flourish. A growing challenge facing seniors, caregivers, professionals and volunteers working with the elderly was the need for service coordination to help seniors design an optimal package of social and health services based on what was available and what they could afford.

During this period, ElderHelp established two distinct service models. One “product” line was developed to help seniors make wise choices. This set of services included one-on-one and group counseling through staff or professional volunteers. Offerings included legal assistance, classes, tax and insurance counseling, problem solving and opportunities for meaningful volunteer involvement.

The second product line offered core services to help frail seniors remain independent in their own homes. These services included needs assessment and care planning, shopping for the homebound, HomeShare, caregiving assistance and monitoring services for seniors who live alone.

Leading the Way
ElderHelp’s reputation for offering quality affordable low-tech services began attracting attention and calls from people throughout the city. One reason was that the agency intentionally created a broad definition of the target population. There were no strict eligibility criteria based on age, income, geographic, ethnic, religious or health status. Although some funding sources specified a target population, ElderHelp viewed itself as a community resource, helping anyone in need.

Another factor accelerating demand can be traced to the lack of affordable housing in San Diego. Finding a suitable place to live became an increasingly difficult problem, particularly among those who faced life challenges including illness, lay off, divorce and lower paying jobs. ElderHelp had a model to address this issue because at the same time the community was experiencing these problems, a growing number of seniors were contacting ElderHelp in need of live-in caregiving assistance in order to remain in their own homes. Nearly a third of all calls to the agency came from people interested in ElderHelp’s innovative HomeShare Program, which helps seniors trade space in their homes for income or services.

Care Management also became an increasingly important program during this period. Care managers are social workers with experience in answering questions, solving problems, and developing care plans. This program evolved as a result of the increasingly complex environment of public and private services, geographic differences in services available, and the growing number of seniors in managed care.

In 1993, the agency assisted over 3,000 people annually and for the next three years, the number of clients served increased 30 percent per year. This growth presented an overwhelming challenge to the organization. In simple economic terms, demand exceeded supply. Nearly 2,000 calls a year were logged for information and referral. The number of staff, volunteers, facilities and funding could not keep pace with the increasing number of seniors and the complexity of the issues they faced. By 1994, the board of directors began seeking other organizations who shared the vision of serving the older adult population in order to combine funds and expertise. The search was abandoned within two years when the board’s due diligence review failed to identify a suitable merger partner.

It became increasingly clear the agency needed a proactive plan to address the dynamic pace of change in the external environment, and in 1995 ElderHelp took several critical steps forward to meet the challenge of serving a rapidly escalating senior population. The first strategy was to begin to position ElderHelp as a community resource in order to draw on the widest expertise available to improve services, expand education efforts, develop a marketing program and enhance our fundraising opportunities. The second was to address the growing need for high quality, low-cost services in other neighborhoods throughout San Diego.

ElderHelp formed a multi-agency collaboration called Senior Neighborhood Network (SNN). Partner agencies include Bayside Settlement House (Linda Vista), Chicano Federation (Logan Heights), Family Services Association (Encinitas), ElderHelp (Mid-City) and Jewish Family Services (Mid-City). The SNN was designed to offer a uniform set of basic case management services to seniors throughout San Diego, particularly in minority communities. With this step, ElderHelp acknowledged that it could not meet all of San Diego’s eldercare needs alone, but the model ElderHelp used to deliver services could be replicated by other organizations and communities.

ElderHelp Today
Today, ElderHelp of San Diego is an integral part of the spectrum of government, health care and community based providers that is focused on providing long-term care to seniors within the community. ElderHelp is one of the only agencies that is solely focused on providing affordable services and programs to seniors within their own homes. Last year we served over 5,000 seniors with a staff of 14 and a volunteer base over 350.

Care Management Program:
(Includes- Grocery Shopping, Friendly Visiting, Minor Home Repair, Budget Minding, Transportation Services)

HomeShare Program :