© Imelda Maurer, cdp July 15, 2009
ilmcdp@yahoo.com
Yesterday I wrote to Sister Mary Lou Mitchell, President of the Sisters of St. Joseph, Rochester, NY regarding the July 9th article in The New York Times featuring their Sisters living in their retirement setting. Below is the response I received from Sister Mary Lou, printed here with her permission.
Dear Sr. Imelda,
Thanks for your note and the wonderful piece you did on your blog. This has truly been a humbling experience for me and for the Congregation. Health promotion across the life span and gerontology has been a passion of mine for many years and I am grateful that the community has allowed me to work on improving the quality of care for our elders. They are such wonderful beautiful women and I am richer being able to be with them and serve them in this fashion.
Let us pray that together we can continue to help our culture know that our elderly are a gift to us and not a burden.
In peace,
Mary Lou
Indeed, we are all and always gift to one another. That reality does not become invalid because of chronological age and/or frailty. All of us who are care-ers for others, through a formal workplace position or from the relationship of sisterhood or friendship can validate Sister Mary Lou’s experience of being “richer” because we are “able to be with them and serve them.”
To all those who, by your conscious and intentional actions, honor our aging members by your care and service – blessings to you. You are the joyfully visible sign of God’s Providential love for all of creation.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
New York Times July 9 2009
© Imelda Maurer, cdp July 14, 2009
ilmcdp@yahoo.com
On July 9th there was a lead article in the New York Times by Jane Gross entitled, “Sisters Face Death with Dignity and Reverence.” I have attempted a blog entry about this outstanding article twice since I read the article but the writing has always fallen flat.
Immediately after reading the article online, I called the Sisters of St. Joseph of Rochester, New York to express my gratitude to Sister Mary Lou Mitchell, President, who was quoted in the article. In addition to the print article, there is a slide show on the website which shows in the course of its own story Sister Mary Lou in a couple of pictures expressing warmth, affection and compassion to her elderly Sisters. I did not sense that this woman in congregational leadership was ‘panning for the camera.’ I sensed a woman familiar with and comfortable with expressing those human emotions with her own. A gift to her Sisters and to the world.
This morning I sent an e-mail to another Sister and I included the URL to that July 9th article. When I remembered a quotation from the article of one of the Sisters living in the retirement center, tears came to my eyes. I thought then: “This is what I should write about.”
This is the quotation: Sister Marie, a 77-year-old Sister who lives at the retirement center and who visits the community nursing home frequently is quoted as saying, “We won’t let anyone go alone on the last journey.”
These Sisters of St. Joseph companion their Sisters. These Sisters honor death as a part of living, as the doorway to the fullness of life. They live out the words of Bill Moyer: “Death must be witnessed and attended to.”
Integral to this faith-based vision is the reality that this earthly life is a gift, a precious gift. In the context of these faith values, namely, that life is a gift and that this physical life is for a limited time only, the Sisters of St. Joseph have intentionally provided an environment where life could be lived to the fullest, where appropriate services could be provided, and where these Sisters would “die with dignity and die well.” These values are expressed in an environment which intentionally promotes the services the Sisters want for their frail elderly. It is expressed in recruiting and hiring well-qualified personnel – a geriatrician-physician as the primary care provider for many of the Sisters, and a nurse practitioner on staff in the nursing home. By definition, these are professionals with pertinent and excellent knowledge and skills related to aging and the care of the aging.
A nationally known social worker, Carter Catlett Williams, in speaking of typical nursing homes, reminds us that all too often we absorb the values of our culture. Not so with these Sisters. They have consciously chosen the environment and the services which will result in a higher quality of life for their own and which will allow them a “good death” in the end, in the company of their Sisters.
I am reminded of a piece of poetry/prose that I share with the readers of this blog:
"I will not die an unlived life. I will not live in fear of falling or catching fire.
I choose to inhabit my days, to allow my living to open me, to make me less afraid, more accessible, to loosen my heart until it becomes a wing, a torch, a promise.
I choose to risk my significance; to live so that which comes to me as seed goes to the next as blossom and that which comes to me as blossom, goes on as fruit."
Dawna Markova
Author of Open Mind.
To read Jane Gross’ article, go to:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/09/health/09sisters.html
ilmcdp@yahoo.com
On July 9th there was a lead article in the New York Times by Jane Gross entitled, “Sisters Face Death with Dignity and Reverence.” I have attempted a blog entry about this outstanding article twice since I read the article but the writing has always fallen flat.
Immediately after reading the article online, I called the Sisters of St. Joseph of Rochester, New York to express my gratitude to Sister Mary Lou Mitchell, President, who was quoted in the article. In addition to the print article, there is a slide show on the website which shows in the course of its own story Sister Mary Lou in a couple of pictures expressing warmth, affection and compassion to her elderly Sisters. I did not sense that this woman in congregational leadership was ‘panning for the camera.’ I sensed a woman familiar with and comfortable with expressing those human emotions with her own. A gift to her Sisters and to the world.
This morning I sent an e-mail to another Sister and I included the URL to that July 9th article. When I remembered a quotation from the article of one of the Sisters living in the retirement center, tears came to my eyes. I thought then: “This is what I should write about.”
This is the quotation: Sister Marie, a 77-year-old Sister who lives at the retirement center and who visits the community nursing home frequently is quoted as saying, “We won’t let anyone go alone on the last journey.”
These Sisters of St. Joseph companion their Sisters. These Sisters honor death as a part of living, as the doorway to the fullness of life. They live out the words of Bill Moyer: “Death must be witnessed and attended to.”
Integral to this faith-based vision is the reality that this earthly life is a gift, a precious gift. In the context of these faith values, namely, that life is a gift and that this physical life is for a limited time only, the Sisters of St. Joseph have intentionally provided an environment where life could be lived to the fullest, where appropriate services could be provided, and where these Sisters would “die with dignity and die well.” These values are expressed in an environment which intentionally promotes the services the Sisters want for their frail elderly. It is expressed in recruiting and hiring well-qualified personnel – a geriatrician-physician as the primary care provider for many of the Sisters, and a nurse practitioner on staff in the nursing home. By definition, these are professionals with pertinent and excellent knowledge and skills related to aging and the care of the aging.
A nationally known social worker, Carter Catlett Williams, in speaking of typical nursing homes, reminds us that all too often we absorb the values of our culture. Not so with these Sisters. They have consciously chosen the environment and the services which will result in a higher quality of life for their own and which will allow them a “good death” in the end, in the company of their Sisters.
I am reminded of a piece of poetry/prose that I share with the readers of this blog:
"I will not die an unlived life. I will not live in fear of falling or catching fire.
I choose to inhabit my days, to allow my living to open me, to make me less afraid, more accessible, to loosen my heart until it becomes a wing, a torch, a promise.
I choose to risk my significance; to live so that which comes to me as seed goes to the next as blossom and that which comes to me as blossom, goes on as fruit."
Dawna Markova
Author of Open Mind.
To read Jane Gross’ article, go to:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/09/health/09sisters.html
Monday, July 6, 2009
There’s no place like home
© Imelda Maurer, cdp July 6, 2009
ilmcdp@yahoo.com
Bill Thomas, M.D. has patented a particular approach to culture change in long-term care. The name given to facilities that follow Thomas’ guidelines is “Green House.”
This particular approach is only one way in which culture change is being implemented in long-term care. There are other models. What they hold in common is that they center on the same values and principles: resident-directed environment. Such approaches result in: HOME as opposed to INSTITUTION; autonomy, dignity, individuality, spontaneity in a nursing home resident’s day; more positive outcomes for nursing home residents; and higher morale and lower turnover among nursing home staff. The whole thing, according to well documented research is budget-neutral, though I suspect, in light of greater resident AND employee satisfaction that there is an overall savings in employee training and in medical costs when a nursing home is HOME and not an INSTITUTION.
The Rochester, NY daily newspaper carried an article on July 6th about one such nursing home in that city. You can access it by clicking on the URL below.
Some particularly pertinent statements from the article include these:
It is imperative that there is a change in the organization’s culture if the “model” is to work, if there is to be real change.
“The movement is also prodded by recognition that people treated like parts on an assembly line fail to thrive.”
“Cottage Grove administrator Cathy Allen, a registered nurse who lives in Honeoye Falls, appreciates the close relationships that can form between staff and residents. Allen recently took Chambers (a nursing home resident with some dementia) to buy prizes for games. On the short trip, Chambers repeatedly asked Allen how she had slept and how her day had been, and Allen said she answered cheerfully, again and again. Then at one point Chambers said, "I like being with you."”
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20090706/NEWS01/907060321/1002/NEWS
ilmcdp@yahoo.com
Bill Thomas, M.D. has patented a particular approach to culture change in long-term care. The name given to facilities that follow Thomas’ guidelines is “Green House.”
This particular approach is only one way in which culture change is being implemented in long-term care. There are other models. What they hold in common is that they center on the same values and principles: resident-directed environment. Such approaches result in: HOME as opposed to INSTITUTION; autonomy, dignity, individuality, spontaneity in a nursing home resident’s day; more positive outcomes for nursing home residents; and higher morale and lower turnover among nursing home staff. The whole thing, according to well documented research is budget-neutral, though I suspect, in light of greater resident AND employee satisfaction that there is an overall savings in employee training and in medical costs when a nursing home is HOME and not an INSTITUTION.
The Rochester, NY daily newspaper carried an article on July 6th about one such nursing home in that city. You can access it by clicking on the URL below.
Some particularly pertinent statements from the article include these:
It is imperative that there is a change in the organization’s culture if the “model” is to work, if there is to be real change.
“The movement is also prodded by recognition that people treated like parts on an assembly line fail to thrive.”
“Cottage Grove administrator Cathy Allen, a registered nurse who lives in Honeoye Falls, appreciates the close relationships that can form between staff and residents. Allen recently took Chambers (a nursing home resident with some dementia) to buy prizes for games. On the short trip, Chambers repeatedly asked Allen how she had slept and how her day had been, and Allen said she answered cheerfully, again and again. Then at one point Chambers said, "I like being with you."”
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20090706/NEWS01/907060321/1002/NEWS
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