Helping Hands Of Newtown—

VNA Supporting Partnerships, Quality Care To Community

By John Voket

If you think providing quality health care to individual patients and clients is important, how about an agency that has its finger on the pulse of an entire community, literally!

Through innovative partnerships and the strategic support of other local and regional programs, the Visiting Nurse Association of Newtown, Inc has grown into something much more than a folksy home care delivery agency.

In other words…this is not your mother’s VNA.

On one recent Wednesday afternoon VNA of Newtown President Mary Tietjen and Treasurer Margareta Kotch joined several of their members who volunteer regularly at Kevin’s Community Center, the local free health clinic on Peck’s Lane. The pair came to deliver a check for $10,000, the third annual gift the organization has made to the clinic in as many years.

It was the first of such generous bequests in 2002 that provided initial seed money to establish the clinic, which in its first two years of operation has treated hundreds of Newtown residents at low or no cost to the patients. As one of the primary first lines of defense for those who cannot obtain, or who have lost, health care coverage and are threatened by health crises, Kevin’s is a logical beneficiary of the VNA’s largest annual gift.

“The VNA’s first $10,000 was waiting for us before we ever opened the doors to Kevin’s Community Center,” said clinic founder Dr Z. Michael Taweh after accepting the latest check. “If it wasn’t for this organization putting some of the initial funding in place, I don’t know if we would be standing here today in this clinic.”

According to Dr Taweh, the latest installment will go far toward balancing the clinic’s budget for operational expenses. The funds, he said, will be split to acquire supplies of particular medications the clinic dispenses, a cold sterilization cart, or to purchase equipment to stock surgical trays used for minor procedures.

“We are able to provide this underwriting every year thanks to a targeted donation from a local benefactor,” Ms Kotch said. “But it is our board of directors who have consistently determined Kevin’s to be such a worthy cause.”

As one of the VNA of Newtown founding members, Ms Tietjen can look back proudly on her 18 years with the organization, and an even longer legacy of support for other programs designed to keep Newtown residents on the road to better health. But, she notes, the organization also plays a critical role in doling out preventative medicine to everyone from elementary school students, to the homebound infirm, to those who attend the Newtown Senior Center.

Partnering With         Bethel VNA

With the cooperation of Bethel VNA professionals, the Newtown association provides nursing, physical therapy, and nursing aide services to Newtown residents.

“Our partnership with Bethel gives us the opportunity to continue providing in-home health care to local residents who may not be able to afford any, or all, of the assistance they may need,” Ms Tietjen said. “We provide the funds and the Bethel VNA nurses can make the house calls and home visits on our behalf here in Newtown.”

Ms Tietjen explained that the VNA of Newtown’s history of establishing and underwriting regional partnerships goes back to 1965 when the organization began contracting with the more populated Danbury VNA agency to provide home nursing care in Newtown.

The group’s own volunteers and nursing partners also provide eye screening in nursery schools, cholesterol checkups, hearing clinics, as well as blood pressure testing at health fairs. A skin cancer screening will be held next month, as the VNA launches an expansion of its services. The Newtown VNA also came through with ample supplies of scarce flu shots last winter when much of the rest of the country was facing a critical flu vaccination shortage.

“Whenever we do these any of these activities or clinics we try and provide as much staffing as possible from our own members,” Ms Kotch added. “But we always have a registered nurse on hand from the Bethel organization whenever one is required,”

She said that Newtown’s VNA leadership was encouraging these types of partnerships long before the more recent nursing shortages began plaguing the health care industry. While many state health agencies and hospitals have to recruit professionals from outside the country, the VNA of Newtown continues to supply any and all the assistance that local clients require from its local network of nursing professionals.

“Way before the demand for community nursing peaked, we have been looking outside the community for partnerships to help our local patients and clients,” Ms Tietjen said. “We’re trying to help address the current nursing shortage by providing a scholarship every year to a town resident who is pursuing a nursing career.”

Since its inception six years ago, organization has supplied its annual Mary Holian Scholarship for former nurses who choose to reenter the profession.

But when it comes to providing immediate hands-on care, Ms Tietjen said the local group still assesses every resident who applies for home care or other related nursing support.

“We’ll assist any Newtown resident and provide the appropriate level of care based on their particular needs,” she said. “Any resident facing an inability to pay for nursing services, and who needs nursing services should be aware that VNA of Newtown is there for them.”

“We’re fortunate that in many cases today, those who do qualify for insurance or health care assistance have many of their services covered,” Ms Kotch said. “This frees up more money to target those who have lost coverage, or who cannot obtain it for whatever reason.”

One recent special initiative involved providing a homebound patient with the rental cost for a special mechanical bed that was required because of a particular type of illness the person was suffering. Ms Kotch said the VNA of Newtown picked up the bed rental cost, which exceeded $3,000 per month for the several months the patient required the equipment.

Thanks to a handful of major donors and hundreds of smaller but no less important benefactors who send occasional checks for $10, $20 or $100, no one in Newtown ever has to bear the added burden of financial responsibility for services if they cannot afford them, Ms Kotch explained.

“We don’t have annual fund drives,” Ms Tietjen said. “Some nonprofit organizations believe people don’t really pay attention to them unless they get requests for a donation. We consider ourselves very fortunate that we don’t have to take advantage of people’s kindness every year.”

“But when we do mount a fund drive, it’s because we really need the money,” Ms Kotch said.

Thrift Shop Benefits

She pointed to the local VNA Thrift Shop in the rear of Edmond Town Hall as another source of revenue that both provides for and receives from virtually anyone in the community. Besides the retail sales and donations of items to those in need, the organization maintains a loan closet of medical supplies such as wheelchairs and crutches, available at no cost to any Newtown resident.

VNA of Newtown board member Charleen Swanson has been a volunteer at the thrift store since she began working with the agency eight years ago. The former teacher spends time staffing the cash drawer at least twice a month.

“This is a great resource for people looking for affordable quality clothing, toys, games gifts or accessories,” Ms Swanson said of the quaint but well-stocked shop. “And we turn over so many items every month that even regular visitors are always discovering something new.”

Thrift Store manager Gloria von Oy said the shop is networked with more than two dozen regional agencies, from residential homes for the disabled to homeless shelters and family crisis services. In her three years with the organization, she has supplied at no cost countless shirts, pants, shoes, and coats for individuals in need who receive services from one or more of these partnering social service organizations.

“We bring people in all the time and give them the opportunity to get whatever they may need for themselves, their children, or a loved one who may be in their care who is going without,” Ms von Oy said. She said the store has provided gifts and prizes for Bingo games at Ashlar of Newtown, as well as raffle prizes for last week’s Relay For Life.

“It helps the people in need, and it helps us by turning over large quantities of stock. That way we can offer more new stock which keeps our regular customers coming back more frequently,” she said.

One of those customers is Rebecca Sniadecki, who said she has been patronizing the VNA Thrift Store for many, many years.

“Twenty-one years ago, right after we moved to Newtown, I heard about this shop and I’ve been coming here ever since,” Ms Sniadecki said. “As a single mom, this has been a very important place for me. My kids grew up in things from this shop, but it’s fantastic quality and I’m always getting a bargain.”

Ms Swanson pointed to a trio of shoppers making their way to their cars loaded down with plastic bags full of clothes.

“The shop has also become a place for people to socialize,” she said. “We have that same group of friends showing up almost every Wednesday.”

Ms Sniadecki said she invites other friends to join her at the shop whenever she finds the time.

“You don’t mind spending a little because you get so much for your money,” she said. “Besides, I always like to keep whatever money I do spend right here in the community.”

VNA services including nursing, physical therapy, nursing aide, home health aides, and homemaking services are provided through an association with the Bethel VNA; call 792-0864; the VNA thrift shop number is 270-4377. The VNA will sponsor a skin cancer screening on July 23 from 10 am to noon at the VNA clinic in the multipurpose building on Riverside Road in Sandy Hook; reservations are required; call screening scheduler Mona Lauricella at 426-6556.