What is the Living at Home/Block Nurse Program?
It is a community Program that draws on the professional and volunteer services of local residents to provide nursing, companionship and chore services to their elderly neighbors who might otherwise be institutionalized. The Living at Home/Block Nurse Program (LAH/BNP) was formed in 1991 to demonstrate the viability of an integrated, neighborhood-based senior care model to assist older persons wishing to remain in their homes. As can be seen in the name, this model represents the joining of two previously established programs that successfully implemented neighborhood models of care. Two Successful Programs The Block Nurse Program was founded in 1981 in the St. Anthony Park community in St. Paul. In 1985 expansion to other neighborhoods began, and it soon included the Highland Park and North End/South Como neighborhoods in St. Paul, Prospect Park neighborhood in Minneapolis and the small town of Atwater in west central Minnesota. The Program provided an alternative to expensive nursing
