By Thea Jarvis

Catholic Social Services' Aging Services, in partnership with two metro Atlanta parishes, last month began a project of In-Home Services to the Elderly. The program addresses the needs of homebound elderly in St. Thomas More and Immaculate Heart of Mary churches, enabling older persons with limited mobility to remain in their own homes as long as possible.

In her office at St. Thomas More rectory in Decatur, In-Home Services coordinator Pat Duggan believes the project is a financial and psychological boon to an aging population.

"We can provide the same kind of service any (nursing) agency can offer but at a lower cost," she explained. "We can do this because our overhead is low."

With on-hands experience as partner in a $3.5 million private nursing agency for seven years, Mrs. Duggan speaks from a well of knowledge and know-how. She has staffed hospitals, nursing homes and private duty assignments in metro Atlanta with nurse's aides who handled clients' critical and/or custodial care. Her current goal is to provide the same high-level care in the context of Christian outreach.

"It's like a calling, a mission," she said, adding that the substantial reduction in her salary is "not important." Mrs. Duggan sold her interest in the agency she co-owned in 1989, citing burnout and her mother's terminal illness as major influences. Pressured by friends to pursue the In-Home Services job, Mrs. Duggan admits praying, "God, it's your program, your baby. The elderly and sick need help." Shortly after her mother's death, Mrs. Duggan was chosen out of 36 applicants interviewed for the coordinator's position.

Currently, Pat Duggan is the only salaried staff member of IHS. Her busy days are filled with visits to prospective clients referred by concerned and overstretched family members. These visits flesh out vital statistics and allow her to personally appraise a situation before assigning a nurse's aid to the case. If expanded medical assessment is needed, a registered nurse is drawn from a pool of volunteer RNs garnered by IHS. Otherwise, Mrs. Duggan contracts with a certified nurse's aide who then meets with the patient and his family and works up an individualized care plan.

Certified nurse's aides, Mrs. Duggan remarked, are carefully trained in the personal care field. Their duties include taking vital signs, reminding patients of medication times, bathing, changing beds and catheters, preparing meals and assisting patients in their exercise.

"Nurse's aides do much more than a volunteer could do," Pat Duggan emphasized, although volunteers are an integral part of the In-Home Services agenda.

This summer, 172 individuals from St. Thomas More and Immaculate Heart of Mary churches will receive orientation from the Social Services Department of St. Joseph Hospital to prepare them for the "Helpmate" facet of IHS. Helpmates assist IHS clients by driving them to doctor's appointments or the local grocery, mowing a lawn, cleaning gutters, replacing a washer in a leaky faucet, sharing a movie or a walk. The Helpmate arm of In-Home Services requires as little as one to two hours a week and encourages the gift of time and friendship to homebound elderly. Although Helpmate volunteers receive no recompense, a low hourly fee is charged to cover overhead and indigent care.

In-Home Services is a two-year pilot project and must stand on its financial feet by 1991. Seed money, in the form of grants from the Metropolitan Atlanta Community Foundation and Georgia Power Company, as well as individual and parish donations, totaled $36,000. Expansion and continuation of the program depends on its ability to maintain financial health through continued contributions and funds generated by IHS fees.

"The idea for In-Home Services was formed from the calls that came in constantly from people searching for this type of care," said Betsy Styles, head of the Aging Services branch of Catholic Social Services. "Our vision is that this program will someday be available in every parish in the archdiocese." Parishes could pool their resources, as St. Thomas More and Immaculate Heart of Mary have done, she explained, and such combinations would be especially effective in rural areas.

Already feedback on the fledgling project has been positive.

"This is the service that we need," responded one harried daughter who thought she would have to place her aging parent in a full-care facility, Ms. Styles reported. "The need is so great that people outside St. Thomas More hear about (IHS) and call Pat Duggan. We hope parishes will want to start up In-Home Services in their own church communities."

(For further information in In-Home Services, call Pat Duggan at 404-378-3972 or Betsy Styles at 404-881-6571)