Needed in all our towns is a community nurse or health care coordinator. With 42% of us old people now, and lack of housing options or retirement homes, we need to consider aging at home. My town of Sharon has had a health care coordinator for eight years. We get to know her and can depend on her finding the necessary resources we’re in need of. She lessens many trips to the medical facilities and cuts down on emergency situations.
She helped me and my husband several times, providing us with a learned relationship we can go to, always there for us. She can help translate and explain what medical terms we don’t understand, advise about medicines and make our surrounding safer for us to avoid falls. To combat isolation, she interviewed us about what music we uses to enjoy when young and got a CD made especially for us.
Our Sharon health care coordinator has acted as the primary coordinator for a complicated case involving a senior with advanced dementia, living alone at the wheelchair level, for more than 1.5 years. Through our advocacy, communication with agencies, facilitation of doctor’s appointments, application assistance to choices for care and implementation of durable medical equipment to prevent falls, the client has been able to meet her goal of remaining home. All this is free to any townsperson.
In looking around at many of the good agencies that serve the elder population, it seems most have a staff shortage and have cut back or stopped doing home visits. Having a town nurse/coordinator on the ground enables a connection to these services.
This idea is spreading around the Upper Valley. The community Nurse or care coordinator doesn’t do hands-on medical tasks like the visiting nurses, they appraise and navigate what’s needed.
I hope more towns will consider getting this kind of help in place. There’s a bill in the House: H.358 for the purpose of establishing community nurse programs in more Vermont communities. Let’s encourage this idea!
Carol Langstaff
Sharon
