By Paula Day

Sister Helen Mick, CSJ, has been named director of Catholic Personal Care Homes, Inc. (CPCH) and Regina Harris named as her assistant director, filling a position left vacant by Joyce Jordan.

Carroll Sterne, archdiocesan Secretary for Catholic Charities, the umbrella agency for CPCH, announced the appointments in early December.

Sister Mick is currently manager of St. Thomas Manor in College Park; Mrs. Harris manages St. Theresa Manor in Riverdale. Both will retain their present positions.

As director, Sister Mick will oversee the operation of the three personal care homes, which include Marian Manor in Atlanta. Mrs. Harris will work in the areas of fund raising, board relations and marketing, Sterne said.

To offset the added workload and enhance services to the elderly residents of the homes, two new full-time positions will be advertised and filled in mid-January. An assistant will be hired to handle some of the administrative duties. Another person will rotate among the three manors providing counseling for new residents and arranging regularly scheduled activities.

Sister Mick has managed the College Park residence for the past five years. She came to the position after administering her congregation's motherhouse in Concordia, Kan., for seven years, a "huge" job. She believes one main challenge in her new position will be to "aggressively market" the services provided by the manors so they are fully occupied and remain financially viable.

Mrs. Harris has managed St. Teresa Manor since June 1990. A native of Ohio, she worked as a broadcast journalist before coming to Atlanta. She says her Catholic upbringing is a "big part of what I do and how I can do it -- with compassion, understanding, patience and love." The new position will bring duties that "will be challenging, but I'm looking forward to that," she said.

Sterne noted that together with Sister Pauline Bilbrough, RBS, manager of Marian Manor, the trio have worked and will continue to work as a management team.

Marian Manor, located near Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, was a sisters' convent renovated to house the elderly in 1984. Later, the completely new St. Thomas and St. Teresa facilities opened.

Each manor can accommodate 15 elderly who need some support in their living arrangements and environment but are still active and do not need nursing care.

For information, call Sister Mick at 404-669-0143.

Mrs. Jordan accepted the position of administrator of Wesley Woods Towers in November. The 202-apartment complex is part of the Wesley Woods Geriatric Center at Emory University.