Newtown VNA Explores Home Care Service

The board of directors of the Visiting Nurse Association (VNA) of Newtown has created an exploratory committee to investigate the feasibility of providing additional home health services to local residents.

“We hear from many sources and from many local residents that there is a dearth of homemakers and home health aides to provide much-needed services to Newtown residents, and many residents are concerned about the cost,” said VNA President Mae Schmidle.

As a result, the VNA is considering the possibility of providing home health aides and homemakers through a service to be known as Newtown VNA Home Helpers that would be based on a sliding scale of ability to pay.

The exploratory committee consists of Chairman Mae Schmidle, Dr Thomas Draper, Christine Wiemels, Margareta Kotch, Carole Polcyn, Maureen McLachlan, and Health District Director Mark Cooper.

Mrs Schmidle said the VNA home health aides would be para-professional health workers prepared through training to function in a supportive relationship with professional nursing and other professional personnel. They would provide personal care for sick or disabled clients at home and assist in maintaining a clean and safe environment.  Some of their responsibilities might include assistance with such personal care activities as bathing, oral hygiene, feeding and dressing, assisting patients with exercises, walking, transfer activities; shopping, meal preparation, laundry and light housecleaning.

As part of the health care team, homemakers would be supervised by a nurse. Their purpose would be to help provide a safe, clean environment for individuals who can remain independent at home if they have some additional help. Some of the homemakers’ responsibilities would include changing beds, dusting and vacuuming, cleaning and tidying bathrooms, kitchen and patient’s bedroom; laundry, meal preparation, grocery shopping and other errands.  Homemakers would not perform personal hands-on care of patients.

Mrs Schmidle said the VNA committee recognizes that some home helpers may need training or additional education so options for offering scholarship assistance will be reviewed. “The committee also  will carefully review a system for payment for services giving careful consideration to the more than 80-year-old VNA policy that no one will be denied essential care because of an inability to pay,” she said.

Mrs Schmidle said the VNA committee is interested in opinions or comments from local residents about the need for such home helpers. Residents can send a note or letter to the Newtown VNA at Edmond Town Hall, 45 Main Street, Newtown 06470. Residents also may contact members of the committee or any members of the VNA Board of Directors.

The information presented by the exploratory committee will be on the agenda of the November VNA Board of Directors meeting when it will consider implementing the new program.