The Shirley Landry Benson PACE Center at St. Cecilia, a renovated, retired Catholic church was opened in September of 2007. Originally set to open in September of 2005, PACE’s emergence onto the scene of senior care in New Orleans was delayed by Hurricane Katrina. Through the efforts of many individuals, PACE Greater New Orleans, the first PACE program in the state of Louisiana and the Gulf Coast Region, was developed and revived by Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans. The success of this first site has inspired the PACE team to open a second site on the Westbank, expanding the PACE service area to cover an extensive portion of Orleans, Jefferson and St. Bernard Parishes.
The PACE Model of care began in the early 1970′s, when the Chinatown-North Beach community of San Francisco saw the pressing needs of families whose elders had immigrated from Italy, China, and the Philippines and now needed long term care services. From these beginnings, the PACE Model has become a nationally known program that provides a full range of care to seniors with chronic care needs while allowing them to remain in their own homes for as long as possible.
