Families First Hires Shanley to Work with Seniors

PORTSMOUTH, NH - After 22 years working with seniors in the Seacoast community, Cindi Shanley has joined Families First Health and Support Center as Senior Programs Coordinator. Her main focus will be doing home visits with seniors who are patients at Families First Health Center in order to identify ways to improve their health and well-being.

“Our primary-care providers are concerned that some of their senior patients need help with things like setting up systems to ensure that meds are taken properly, home safety, or social isolation,” said Families First Executive Director Helen Taft, who hired Ms. Shanley using a grant received from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration. “We are excited to have someone of Cindi’s experience and knowledge joining our team to make sure we can meet the growing needs of seniors in the Seacoast.”

Shanley’s experience includes being a social worker and admissions/outreach coordinator at Clipper Home and Wentworth Senior Living, director of Senior Friends at Portsmouth Regional Hospital, and director of the Portsmouth Senior Center. She currently coordinates a supper club for seniors at Living Innovations. She said her new role at Families First is a good fit because “seniors are very willing to talk to me about what is going on in their lives because I’ve earned their trust. I’ve known some of them for 20 years. And I have learned so much from their experiences and wisdom that I now know how to age gracefully.”

Ms. Shanley has served on many non-profit boards and currently volunteers for End 68 Hours of Hunger and the Portsmouth Senior Center Sub-Committee, as well as belonging to the Portsmouth Rotary Club. She greatly enjoyed working with her late husband, Joe, on many Seacoast non-profit auctions. “Joe raised the money and provided the laughs,” she says, “while I worked behind the scenes.”

In addition to visiting seniors at home, Shanley will also support Families First’s monthly Caregivers Support Group and will staff the Seacoast region’s “station” of Senior Companions. The Caregivers Group, facilitated by volunteer Dick Chamberlin, meets the third Thursday of each month at 2 p.m. at Families First. Senior Companions is a statewide program that matches income-eligible volunteers age 55 and up with seniors who need companionship or practical assistance. Senior Companions is currently seeking new volunteers; for more information, call 603-225-3295.

Families First Health and Support Center provides primary, prenatal and oral health care; parenting and family programs; one-on-one family support; and mobile health care. Learn more at 603-422-8208 or FamiliesFirstSeacoast.org.

Caption: Cindi Shanley is the new Senior Programs Coordinator at Families First Health & Support Center.

Submitted by the Families First Health and Support Center.