Leaving home

Audrey Blabon, 79, waited patiently in a plastic chair last Thursday for her weekly doctor’s visit at Casa Olga — one of her last at the intermediate health care facility.

Within weeks, Blabon, a lively woman who loves Spanish dancing, and Casa Olga’s other 88 residents will no longer reside at the building on the corner of Hamilton Avenue and Emerson Street in downtown Palo Alto. When they move, many stable relationships they have grown to rely on will be broken, the residents said.

Casa Olga is closing, a victim of state budget cuts that slashed the facility’s budget by 10 percent last year and 5 percent as of March 1, 2009, according to Wanda Ginner, a co-owner of the 35-year-old facility.

Casa Olga has served 9,000 seniors and persons with physical and mental disabilities over time. It is a rarity among other types of health-care residences, formed in the mid-1970s when then-Governor Ronald Reagan wanted to cut costs by moving ambulatory persons out of more expensive skilled-nursing facilities.

Casa Olga’s residents have a measure of freedom not available in more intensive-care environments. Many will now move to the more expensive skilled-care homes, Ginner said.

Blabon entered a board-and-care home when she was 49 years old after her mother died, she said. A cheerful, charming woman who dons pearls and enjoys dressing up, she said Casa Olga staff have been family.

“I’ve never heard a sore word from anyone,” she said.

But her bubbly mood turned morose as she recited a litany of family members who have died. She teared up as she talked about her younger brother, Wally, whom she still misses. Remaining family members don’t acknowledge her gifts and rarely visit her any more, she said.

She clenched a crumpled brochure of a nearby residential-care facility in her fist.

“I looked at this beautiful place; they even had a chapel there,” she said, opening the accordioned brochure and regaining her better mood.

“I’m sorry we have to leave here because we made a lot of friends,” she said.

But the hallway carpets are stained and a bit frayed around the edges now, something that Dawn Darley hadn’t seen before when she visited her sister, Cheryl, she said. Darley views the stains as a sign of care starting to wind down, she said.

Cheryl, 60, developed schizo-affective disorder, a severe personality illness, after the birth of her third child. Living at Casa Olga for the last two years has kept her stable, but the move, even with the help of a loving sister, threatens to unhinge Cheryl, Darley said.

“Yesterday at lunch, she was looking under her dishes. I said, ‘Cheryl, what are you looking at? It’s just the tablecloth underneath there.’ She said: ‘I’m looking to see if it’s safe,'” Darley recalled.

“They’re trying to do it too fast. They need to keep it open until after the first of the year and the holidays. … There needs to be more time and more places to go in the Palo Alto area, where people can keep their doctors. So many of them can’t speak up for themselves; they’re just twisting in the wind waiting for help,” she said.

Sherry Robertson, Casa Olga’s administrator, said each resident is being evaluated by a caseworker, psychiatrist and doctor to find facilities that fit the resident’s needs.

But Darley still worries that under the pressure to house the patients, overworked staff will place them in the first facility available, rather than one that is best suited to their needs.

Robertson conceded it is difficult to place the residents. Many facilities don’t accept Medicare and patients on Social Security disability, she said.

In the rose-colored dining room, residents waited for hot lunches. Some rocked rhythmically and others sang or talked to themselves. In mid-August they learned they would have only 60 to 90 days to find new homes.

For Rae Ann and June, two roommates with psychiatric conditions, a deep and lasting bond could be threatened. The women have become fast friends, living together for eight years.

They wear polka-dotted matching socks, gifts from June’s sister, Karen Brieger. On outings, they hold hands.

In their small room, the dresser is lined with photos of the women at various stages of their lives: June at age 3; as an attractive high-school graduate; pictures of sisters and nieces and babies; a photo of the two women smiling, arms around each other’s shoulders.

“We adopted each other. We love each other as company. We love each other very much. We look out for each other,” said Rae Ann, 84, a small woman with steel-gray hair.

“I’ve had a lot of good care here. We were very upset when we found out that we were going to move. We didn’t know what to do. We’re looking at a couple of places,” she said.

June, 61, has lived at Casa Olga for 11 years. Without the intermediate care Casa Olga provides, June will have to go into skilled nursing, a more expensive and intensive proposition, Brieger said.

“It’s non-redeeming no matter how you look at it,” Brieger said of the changes to come.

“Any kind of change has an effect. They don’t have a choice, if you only have two months. The ability to put things (together) over time would soften the blow,” she said.

The friendship with Rae Ann is one of the few solid bonds she has seen her sister able to make, Brieger said.

Brieger and Darley both said they are angry that Palo Alto companies and individuals aren’t putting up money to help keep Casa Olga viable. Institutions support all kinds of needs overseas; here’s a chance to fill a significant need in town, the women said.

Brieger’s task will go beyond finding June a new home. She is searching for a way to preserve the friendship with Rae Ann.

“I’m really looking for a facility for two rather than one — a place that will give them dignity. … Rae Ann worked for the Salvation Army for 15 years. It’s not like she never worked. People would like some nobility. People deserve a shot. I think Casa Olga provided that shot,” she said.