BLUE HILL – After two years of planning and renovation, the former Left Bank Cafe has been transformed into Friendship Cottage, an adult day service program that opened its doors last month.

The program plans an open house from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, July 12, to introduce community members to the facility and its offerings.

The open house will include speeches by dignitaries and the presentation of plans for a garden which will be developed by next year.

“The community has embraced this program,” said Anne Ossanna, program site manager at Friendship House. “We see this as an opportunity to say ‘thank you.'”

Community members helped raise more than $1 million to buy the building and renovate it for the program. And even before the doors opened, community members had volunteered to help in the program where needed.

It was community members who first saw the need for the program and started the grass-roots effort before joining forces with the Washington Hancock Community Agency, which now administers the program.

The Friendship Cottage program was designed with a dual purpose: to serve not only adults who are coping with physical, mental or cognitive problems, but also to serve the caregivers for those people.

“The caregivers and receivers have to work together,” Ossanna said. “If things fall apart for the caregiver, it’s not going to work for the receiver.”

The cottage is divided into two distinct areas. The main floor houses the main program area, community dining rooms, kitchen, quiet areas, media room in which they hope to include a television and laptop computer, and a nurse station.

The upstairs houses administrative offices and a caregivers’ resource center, which includes a lending library and area for support group meetings as well as information about services available in the area.

The Eastern Agency on Aging also has staff available at the center two days a week to provide information on elderly services.

Friendship Cottage is open from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday.

The program is awaiting state licensing before it can accept more than two participants at a time, according to Ossanna. All the inspections have been completed and the paperwork is being reviewed in Augusta, she said.

The license will allow the program to serve up to 30 people at one time. In addition to Ossanna, the program has two part-time certified residential medication aides on staff and a registered nurse consultant who monitors participants’ medications.

The staff will increase to match the growth in participants.

Friendship Cottage is a medical model, Ossanna said, and because the staff is licensed to give medications, the program can accept people who may be more frail and not able to attend other nonmedical programs.

“Having a medical model can keep some people from having to enter a long-term care facility before they have to,” she said. “We’re able to meet their medical needs while giving the caregiver respite, or while the caregiver works.”

The afternoon programs are varied and can range from activities such as making ice cream to live music and art therapy, often provided by local volunteers.

The program costs $12 per hour, which includes the noon meal and snacks. It qualifies for a variety of insurance coverage including MaineCare, Section 61 (another form of state funding), long-term care insurance and a direct patient pay. Friendship Cottage also is working to develop a contract with the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The program is available to residents of Hancock County, but the program provides transportation only for those from Ellsworth through the towns on the Blue Hill Peninsula.

The resource center is available to anyone in the state and there is no fee.

rhewitt@bangordailynews.net

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