Mystic Valley Elder Services Announces Merger With Everett Company

The following press release was sent to Malden Patch from Mystic Valley Elder Services:

MYSTIC VALLEY ELDER SERVICES, CHELSEA WINTHROP REVERE MERGE

Two long-standing community resources merge efforts and resources

MALDEN. Mystic Valley Elder Services and Chelsea Winthrop Revere Elder Services have enthusiastically announced that the two organizations will merge operations on or about October 1, 2015.

The newly merged agency will operate under the Mystic Valley Elder Services name, and will continue to provide essential home- and community-based care and resources to older adults, adults living with disabilities, and caregivers residing in Chelsea, Everett, Malden, Medford,Melrose, North Reading, Reading, Revere, Stoneham, Wakefield, and Winthrop.

Mystic Valley Elder Services will continue to coordinate home care services, Meals on Wheels, transportation, and enrichment opportunities for program participants and the community at large.

“The new Mystic Valley Elder Services will be an even more robust partner to the members of our eleven communities,” said Daniel O’Leary, executive director.

“This merger brings together the significant financial, intellectual, and human resources of two long-standing community institutions. Over the next several months, we will strengthen our newly centralized administrative offices, identifying resources that can be better spent on providing care and services to consumers across the region.

We will streamline our operations so that more energy than ever can be focused on deepening our relationships with the individual community members of the expanded Mystic Valley region,” he continued.

James Cunningham, who has served as CEO of Chelsea Revere Winthrop Elder Services for 39 years, is retiring at the end of this month. “This union will ensure continuity of service for older adults in the Chelsea, Revere, and Winthrop communities,” Cunningham said. “And our deeply knowledgeable staff will bring compassion and decades of expertise to the Everett, Malden, Medford, Melrose, North Reading, Reading, Stoneham, and Wakefield communities, further enriching the fine services they have received from Mystic Valley Elder Services over the past forty years.”

The boards of both organizations carefully studied the potential effects of this merger with an eye toward increasing quality of life for existing program participants as well as for those to come. O’Leary anticipates that the agency will continue to grow in size and resources both from a client and staff perspective over the next several years.

“These agencies, both of which were created by the communities they serve, have faithfully addressed the needs of older adults and adults living with disabilities for decades,” said Senator Sal DiDomenico (representing Everett and Chelsea) .

“They are known individually among my constituents as organizations that act with integrity in all things, that bring wisdom and compassion to their services, and that elevate the needs and desires of the community members above all else. I take great pleasure at seeing them join forces and become an even more solid and expansive presence in the Mystic Valley region,” he continued.

The organizations will work to combine operations over the next several months with regard to personnel, finances, services, and vendor relationships. In the meantime, Mystic Valley Elder Services will begin to update print materials and the website in anticipation of the expanded service area and the influx of new staff.

The union will be officially celebrated at the agency’s 40th anniversary party on October 1 at the Montvale Plaza in Stoneham.

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