May 25, 2023 -  Bella Bono, Shop Talk 

 

Bella has an interesting background, and she landed on the Coastside from a slightly circuitous life path from her birth in San Francisco, to Paris as an infant, to Truckee High School (and thus her skill at, and love for skiiing), undergraduate work at U.C. Santa Barbara and continuation of her studies at U C. San Diego.  She also started down the path of nursing at U. of Nevada but quickly concluded that this wasn't for her  She describes her grandmother and her father as her principal role models.  

 

Her early post-college job experience included work at a behavioral health center in Santa Barbara, an inpatient facility mainly serving persons on the autism spectrum who also exhibited aggressive behavior.  In light of the behaviors exhibited by some of the patients, this sounded like a kind of health sciences boot camp.  

 

Bella started her job in development for Adult Day Health (which shares space with the Coastside Senior Center) in November, 2022.  Adult Day Health doesn't serve just residents of the Coastside.  Three SamTrans buses also bring participants from Pacifica and over the hill. The transport is wheelchair-accessible and door to door.  It is the only facility of its type in the county, and its programs, directed by consultant specialists in a number of fields, include Alzheimer's and dementia focused programs, body movement and socialization. They also provide much-needed respite for caregivers.  Among other goals, these programs aim to keep participants out of assisted living as long as possible.  As many as 90% of the participants are low-income, and they speak a variety of languages, so translation assistance is important as well.  The organization's social services team is trained to deal wit crisis situations, including referrals to Adult Protective Services if needed.  The staff are "mandated reporters" under state law.

 

Daily, 40 to 65 persons use the programs of Adult Day Health and the total annual census of participants is about 250 persons.  Primary sources of non-public  funding are Dream Machines, Coastside Gives and Pumpkin Festival, in addition to private donations and grants. Bella is partially responsible for the grant-writing program.  The Adult Day Health program covets program volunteers and relies heavily upon their help. 

 

We are grateful to Bella for her service and to have a Rotarian in this role.