Lois's LegacyA new, up-and-coming model for long-term care moves away from the institutional nursing home tradition and towards autonomy, dignity and well-being. www.aplaceformom.com/blog/green-house-project-next-big-thing-in-long-term-care/
Our new sign has been displayed at two Sequim Saturday Markets. It states our mission as “Neighbor helping Neighbor” in two specific ways; transportation and in-home help.
In June, Lois’s Legacy signed a contract with Catholic Community Services to provide more volunteers for their Port Angeles, Clallam County, based program. Perhaps you were not aware of this highly respected organization which helps low income elders and disabled adults stay in their homes for as long as is safely possible.
Volunteer drivers receive orientation and are covered by liability insurance to drive clients to the grocery store or medical appointments.
They can be reimbursed for mileage. Volunteers can also receive orientation to help people with housework, yard work, reading or any of the little things that become difficult to accomplish as one faces temporary or permanent set-backs.
Volunteers often say, “I get so much more from helping my neighbor than the service they get from me.” Lois’s Legacy members have a chance to support a program that could use more volunteers in Sequim. It gives our church new opportunities to reach people as close as next door with kindness, encouragement and practical help.
This is our first call for volunteers. You can call me for more information and also check out our website, created in March.
Contact us for information about receiving help or becoming a volunteer. Pauline Olsen, Chairperson Lois’s Legacy 683-4307.
Pauline Olsen,
Founder and Chairperson
Lois’s Legacy
It started with a gift from my sister, Lois. She gave me Bill Thomas’s book with a strange title, What are Old People For? Pub. Vanderwyk & Burnham, 2004. I left it unread for many months until she urged me to read something by a medical doctor that was really different. Turns out this was about embracing aging and how elders will save the world!
Over the past 25 years, Dr. Thomas, founder of Eden Alternative, has shown ways to make nursing homes more like “home.”. The Green House Project is a revolutionary idea to design smaller bungalow style residences where people of all income levels needing skilled care can have private rooms and baths; companionship and home cooked meals. Nurses and therapists ring a doorbell. For a quick review of the scope of this project, see www.aplaceforMom.com/about
Fast forward to the present. Despite the efforts of Eden Alternative and many other dynamic leaders, thousands of care facilities are perfectly happy with the status quo of dedicated, overworked staff, long halls, shower rooms, noisy dining rooms and regimented care. Change will come only when and if the public demands it. Lois’s Legacy will continue to advocate resident directed, home like care.
In the meantime, those of us in the decades of life faced with needing help are looking for less expensive ways to “age in place” in our own homes. Village to Village national network is one way of organizing access to services like transportation, meals, home repair, caregivers etc. www.vtvnetwork.org ECHHO, in Port Townsend, WA offers similar services. www.echhojc.org
Lois’s Legacy is looking at existing resources in Sequim and how to link people to those services. Our mission is still the same but the focus has shifted from changing management styles to providing options for people to choose where and how to live with a little help from their community. Is Sequim ready for a village network?
Lois's Legacy 