O’Connell Care at Home Opens Satellite Office in Bluebird Estates

HOLYOKE — O’Connell Care at Home, with offices in Holyoke, Springfield and South Deerfield, today announced that the grand opening of its new satellite office at Bluebird Estates will be held Nov. 6 from 6 to 8 p.m.

Bluebird Estates, located at 1 Apple Blossom Lane in East Longmeadow, is a Holiday Retirement community that offers independent living for seniors with apartment-style housing and live-in management teams available around-the-clock. With the opening of the O’Connell Care at Home satellite office in room 243, Bluebird Estates residents will have at-home health care available to them during the week.

“We were approached by Bluebird Estates to rent a space in their facility in order to provide private care needs and nursing onsite,” said Bonnie Robert, private care director at O’Connell Care at Home. “We are filling a niche for the elderly hoping to stay in an independent environment instead of moving to assisted living. Our model at Bluebird Estates is different than our usual O’Connell model: We offer ‘packages’ of time, from 10 minutes to two hours daily, all covered by in-house certified nursing assistants (CNA). If we have anyone in need of care for longer than two hours, we would staff it the way we would for all other O’Connell clients.”

Health care aides will be available at Bluebird Estates from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Friday. The satellite office will be staffed by a member of the O’Connell Care at Home clinical care team.

According to Robert, the 10-minute package would not be available to Bluebird Estates residents if O’Connell Care at Home did not have a presence at the facility. “Most elderly patients need a small amount of time with a CNA in order to remain independently in their home and most at-home care companies have a two-hour minimum in order to send an aide out. With an in-house presence at Bluebird Estates, we can offer the services most of the elder residents need.”