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A community inside our community |
| Channels » Home » News » A community inside our community |
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October 15, 2003 |
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This article by Stacy Swenson was reprinted with permission from the Oct. 15, 2003, edition of The Groton Independent in Groton, S.D.
As the lifestyle of today creates more and more demands on our time, it is easy to forget that Groton has another community in its midst. This community places its emphasis on the care of our former teachers, bank tellers, farmers and dozens of other occupations. It includes our grandparents, mothers, fathers, sisters, uncles, aunts, cousins ... the list goes on and on.
Beverly Healthcare began in 1972 as Colonial Manor. Through the years times have changed, but our elderly and their need for care has not. Finding a way to supply residents with health care, activities, spiritual connections and independence is an everyday challenge.
Laura Ptacek has only been with Beverly since July but her enthusiasm and new ideas are making a huge difference for the residents she serves.
Having worked most recently as the community relations director of Presentation College in Aberdeen, she comes to Groton's facility with fresh eyes. From young college students and faculty as her daily contacts, now her life and work revolve around the other end of the age spectrum. From this perspective, Ptacek brings fresh ideas to bear on the mission of a nursing facility. Her background in communications and public relations tells her some important ways that Beverly Healthcare could be even better than it is in bringing health and meaning to the lives of our elders.
Ptacek has a story to tell that all of us need to understand. That story is this. Beverly Healthcare in Groton is not a place where people go to wait for the end. Rather, it is a thriving and vibrant community that is full of life and activity. Residents here are very much alive and connected to living, whether it be a long-term stay or a short stay for rehabilitation.
The calendar here is full, the relationships are real, and caring for each other is tangible. There is humor here. There is laughter here. There is life here.
Part of what makes Beverly unique among long-term care facilities is the teamwork among its leaders -- from the long-term employees who provide an anchor, to new members of the team, like Laura, who bring ideas and energy.
Being the largest employer in Groton, the facility has, over the years, employed many Groton area residents.
What Beverly Healthcare needs most are people to come in and share this life as a volunteer. This place and these people change you when you allow yourself the opportunity to discover what and who is really here. When you let go of antiquated perceptions about a long-term care facility, you may discover it is not at all what you pictured.
Ptacek believes that our old and stubborn stereotypes about nursing homes, as places where you would never want to be, keep Beverly and people who live in this region from being all that they can be. It's simply about sharing in each other's lives whether we are very young, middle-aged or very old. We are all just people.
Some people stay away because they think they "don't know how to act around residents," said Ptacek. They feel uncomfortable or uncertain in this environment. In reality what the residents need most are other people who are simply themselves. There is no one way to act in a residence like Beverly. Just be yourself.
How can you share? Come and see. Come and join in. Volunteers are needed for such simple things as painting fingernails, calling the ever-popular bingo games, helping with music, reading a newspaper to residents, helping with crafts or art projects, decorating a resident's room, playing games, or bringing your pets who always know exactly how to act in a place like that and with people like that. The therapeutic value that animals bring to elderly residents cannot be overstated. All these things you can share.
Most important, bring yourself. Let your life be enriched by being in the presence of beautiful people -- people who are our parents, uncles, aunts and friends. Just because they may be getting older doesn't make them any less people.
You would be surprised by what you can learn from the people who have lived long and well for many decades. You'd be surprised by the joy you would feel in simply spending some of your time with them. Caring and sharing with the older population is one of the greatest gifts you can give.
Another gift that volunteers can bring is probably the easiest of all. That gift is listening. Don't worry about what you are going to say. Let them say it! Listen to their words, their hearts, their hopes, even their frustrations and sadness. Let them be who they are. Give them your ear. They will adore you for it.
Folks around Groton are getting the message. Beverly Healthcare is not a "dead end" or a place you want to avoid. Beverly Healthcare is a place of beginnings, the start of another phase of living. Beverly is a place of healing, of wholeness, of activity, of fun, of surprises. You just don't know what you might learn or how you might be changed in the process.
Laura Ptacek says she is "proud of the progress we have made," at Beverly. She notes that volunteer hours are beginning to rise again. After only 18 volunteer hours clocked in July, volunteer participation jumped to 44 hours in August. Each one of those hours enhanced the life of this "community within a community." Imagine how much better things would be with many more hours given, with your hour given. Come and see!
Come and be yourself. Come and be changed. Come and make a difference to someone else. Give a little of yourself away to someone else and find what you have received in return. You may discover the greatest benefit is the one to yourself.
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