By Rita McInerney

After a decade of helping physically frail adults stay in their own homes and function at their highest level of health and independence, Sisters Diane Brin, C.S.J., and Joan Granville, S.C., are beginning to see statistics supporting their health care approach.

Their Professional Health Resource Center in Rome, a non-profit corporation, provides day rehabilitation, alternative living, respite and employment services for the elderly living on low incomes in Rome, Floyd and neighboring counties.

“The purpose of all our services is to keep people in their own homes,” Sister Diane said.

According to figures from the Georgia Department of Medical Assistance, 30 percent of all the community care clients in the state were able to be diverted from nursing homes. The average cost per client per year is $2,176. If these clients were placed in intermediate care nursing homes the cost would be $7,258 per person. Since PHRC serves about 60 clients in all services annually, the $304,920 saving is significant.

On April 15, 1986, the center relocated from a converted house on Second Avenue to a much larger professional facility at 409 S. Broad St. Formerly doctors’ offices and lab, the 4000-square-foot space has been skillfully remodeled to serve the needs of its clientele. (The PHRC was the subject of a feature story in the Georgia Bulletin of Jan. 30, 1986.)

Off the large front room where center clients congregate there is a well-equipped physical therapy room, a small room with a bed, a large bathroom with an “island” tub where patients are bathed by the health aide. Beauty parlor equipment is found in the bathroom off the dining room. Several of the women enjoy having their hair done on Thursday, like females everywhere preparing for the weekend, for church on Sunday.

A well stocked craft room is next to the main room. Offices, staff library, kitchen and laundry open off the wide corridor which runs the length of the building. Handrails on either side of the walls facilitate walking for the clients. Black and white pictures of clients, decorate the wall.

Liz Molina, R.N., is director of community care services. A big part of her job is nursing care: for those 20 men and women who come to the center Monday, Tuesday and Thursday of each week; to clients living in alternative living homes, and to clients who receive respite care.

Some of the clients are transported to the center in wheelchairs, others need walkers or canes. Most are frail. The majority live alone and find at the center a “family” environment which helps them function within the continually narrowing confines of age.

Mrs. Molina monitors each client, administering medication, checking pulse, heart and blood pressures, giving physical therapy, all according to doctors’ orders. She keeps a detailed chart listing medication and dietary needs of each client.

Every two weeks she drives to Rainbow Village on the outskirts of Rome, to visit and monitor three women clients living at this personal care home, one of two under contract to PHRC. Here, in her bungalow surrounded by a wide lawn, Zelma Bing provides an alternative to nursing homes for Emmie and Betty, both in their early 90s, and Liz, in her 80s and mute since an operation for throat cancer.

Such living in strictly supervised and state-licensed homes is arranged by the center for clients no longer able to live alone, Mrs. Molina explained. “They have to be able to get up and move about and have some kind of interaction” with the other guests.

Emmie shows a visitor to her room which she said she “takes care of, just like at home.” She offers three colorful crocheted hotpads from among a stack in her tote bag. She can make one, she claimed, in five minutes. But her eyes do get tired.

“Our clients have to be extremely fragile,” the sisters said, “and the doctor has to say this person needs to be in a nursing home. The alternative living fills a tremendous need…We have found over the past three years that we’ve been able to delay some nursing home admissions.”

The doctor must reorder the residents to be there every 60 days. In his order he outlines what must be done for his patient and from this Mrs. Molina makes up a nursing care plan for Zelma Bing to follow.

According to 1980 U.S. census figures supplied by the Rome Chamber of Commerce, almost 20 percent of the 81,000 residents of Floyd County are over 55. The number of low income elderly among this segment of the population is high, according to the sisters.

“The services we’re providing are all of our own design,” Sister Joan remarked. Back in the late 1970s, they talked to knowledgeable people in the area about the needs of older adults and from these conversations identified needs.

So the programs offered by PHRC were unique in a county otherwise lacking in this component of health care. The state recognized their value and, since 1984, PHRC has been participating in a Georgia pilot program offering community care services and funded by the federal Health Care Financing Administration.

Rosemary McHenry, case manager at the Coosa Valley Area Planning and Development Commission which refers clients to the center, said it does “a magnificent job” with all the services. “We refer the clients to them, and they decide which service to offer.” The commission was instrumental in helping the sisters after they incorporated PHRC in 1978.

“I don’t know what those older people would do without that (day rehabilitation) center,” Ms. McHenry said. “That’s their socialization. The love that goes on over there is tremendous. Those gals do a super job.”

The sisters and their staff give their clients love wrapped in concern for their physical, spiritual and psychological needs. When two clients, Florence McCollum and Russell Huffman were married on Sept. 15, 1986, the nuptials took place at the Broad Street center. Sisters and staff arranged for the ceremony and reception and another client, Jim, gave the bride away. The Rome newspaper covered the event with story and pictures and the PHRC album record the sisters keep has several pages devoted to the big day.

Sadly, Russell, a frail 82, died Oct. 31, 1986, six weeks after the nuptials. Florence, 72 in June, still has the center “family” to care for her.

Ed O’Brien, executive director of the United Way in Rome and Floyd County, called the PHRC “every vital to the part of the community they’re serving…We feel they’re doing an outstanding job.” Just to walk into the center, he said, convinces one of the “productive work” they do, in a “light-hearted” environment.

“They (United Way) were especially interested in us because they had not one agency serving the older adult,” Sister Diane said. Although not a United Way agency, the center this year will receive $9,100 in venture (special project) funds for emergency assistance or creative projects that deserve encouragement.

Part of the money will be used to hire a health aide to assist the clients at the day center, and the rest will provide scholarships for rehabilitation clients. “Someone on Medicaid questions that we know who is in need,” Sister Diane said. Sometimes, Mr. O’Brien said, Medicaid will reject an applicant living in poverty in the country. “Having a little plot of land makes them ineligible,” he added.

Such grants augment Medicaid payments (most of the clients receive this government aid), private pay and donations. The congregations of both sisters were helpful in establishing the center and continue to be supportive.

Sister Diane has been a member of the Sisters of St. Joseph, Concordia, Kansas, for 29 years. Sister Joan, a Sister of Charity from Convent Station, N.J., has been in religious life for 22 years. They met while earning masters degrees in health care administration at St. Louis University.

Respite care, another need identified early on by the sisters, is a service aimed at relief for the caregiver. Twice a month it provides for a worker to go to the home, for five hours each visit, to allow free times for the family member taking care of the client.

Mrs. Molina, who administers respite care, said the caregivers “are very grateful…look forward to the respite worker coming.” The worker has to be able and like to work with elderly people. There is little personal care involved, just the ability to keep the client safe while the caregiver spends well-earned time away from demanding responsibility.

Mrs. Molina monitors the 15 clients who have respite care as she does the clients at the Broad Street center and the three women at Rainbow Village.

Connie Leithauser is coordinator of the senior community service employment program managed by the center under contract with the Coosa Valley Area Planning and Development Commission. She oversees 25 men and women employed in jobs averaging 20 hours a week. To be eligible the worker’s income must not exceed 125 percent of the poverty level ($7,213 for an individual) set by the federal government.

Mrs. Leithauser visits the workers at their job sites regularly and said she finds supervisors “extremely happy” with the people referred by the center. They are placed in senior citizen nutrition centers, health departments, libraries, clothing banks, training centers for the mentally retarded and housing authorities. Most of her clients are single and happy to add an average $3,500 annually to meager incomes. One or two are in their 80s and several in their 70s.

A former teacher, Mrs. Leithauser will be in charge of the homemaker aid program once the application is approved. Her work at the center has “opened up a whole new vista,” she said. “It’s almost a miracle that I landed here.”

Sisters Diane and Joan don’t claim any miracles but their health care center in a once-affluent neighborhood of Rome is a positive celebration of the Gospel message of Jesus.