November 30, 2006 Issue
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Classified Chestnut Hill Local Online Editor Don't Miss an Issue, Tell us what you see or ©2006 Chestnut Hill Local Winner of One |
Temple’s Time Out helps seniors stay at home
Every Saturday, Dorothy Benian of Mt. Airy breathes a sigh of relief when Azaria Carter, a Temple University student, walks in the door. The 57-year-old flea market and garage sale junkie, who cares for her 82-year-old mother, does not waste a moment of her “time out” and bolts out the door as soon as Carter arrives. “It’s easy to tell you what I do on Saturdays,” Benian said with a laugh. “I get out of here. Azaria is in at 12, and I’m out the door by 12:02.” Benian is granted her free time through Temple University’s Time Out Respite Program, a grant-funded program that partners college students with elderly persons whose caregivers – usually a son or daughter like Benian – could use a break in the constant care of a senior. At $7 an hour, the program is more affordable than many hospice and nursing care services, many of which also provide hygienic and nursing services, aspects of the service that some caregivers do not need. “Students become the eyes and ears” of the caregivers, said Susan G. Smith, director of Time Out. They can go food shopping, check medicine or just keep the elderly resident active and comfortable in the home by watching TV and participating in activities they enjoy. Their presence also gives caregivers a chance to catch their breath or spend time by themselves. Students in Time Out go through an intensive 10-hour training course and must provide two references and have a criminal history clearance. “Azaria is my sanity keeper, my life saver,” said Benian, who takes her six hours of freedom each Saturday to visit flea markets, go to the movies or the park to read or takes a drive with her husband. Benian’s mother, Hortense Campbell, has lived with her for 20 years, ever since an abdominal illness prevented her from continuing her job as a ward clerk at Episcopal Hospital. Before receiving the services of Time Out, Benian, who has worked from home for five years, was utilizing home aides through the Philadelphia Corporation for the Aging. The nurses would come four hours in the morning to help with hygiene and breakfast. While the service was free to Benian, she said the nurses were usually late and would leave early. “It wasn’t working well,” she said, and was not saving her time. She added that her mother was “persnickety” and that it took a bit of patience and perseverance to work with her. Instead, Benian turned to Time Out, which she learned about from her sister, a nurse with the Philadelphia Corporation for Aging. For two of the three years Benian has utilized Time Out, Carter, who is 22, has visited for six hours every Saturday. She also went with Benian and Campbell on a trip to the Atlantic City casinos, Campbell’s favorite destination, and has stayed overnight to be with Campbell while Benian was away. In recent years, increasing bouts of short-term memory loss (she repeated two stories during an hour-long interview with the Local in September) have prevented Campbell from visiting the casinos on her own. She got lost three times during bus trips, requiring Benian to search for her. But she is quick as a whip at cards and dominos, which she and Carter often play together. “She’s a card and dominos shark from way back,” Benian said, so her card and domino playing is not affected by the short-term memory loss. Her “persnickety wit” apparently has not been forgotten either, as Campbell and Benian amiably argued throughout the entire interview about her ability to visit the casinos on her own. She said of two-year companion Carter, “If I didn’t like her, she wouldn’t be here.” It does not hurt that Carter often brings lottery tickets on her weekly visit as well. But more than the games, activities and lotto tickets, Carter said that the hours of conversation between the two generations is the greatest benefit to her as a participant in the Time Out Program. Carter always goes to Campbell for “level headed” advice, she said, and they watch the news together (Channel 6 Action News on ABC is Campbell’s favorite) and afterwards discuss topics mentioned. “The conversations get interesting,” said Benian, who sometimes gets to observe the conversations. “The two offer generationally different perspectives.” Beyond the news topics, Carter said the stories Campbell shares as a native of Jamaica, who gave birth to Benian there 15 years before moving to the United States in 1964, are compelling and much different than the world Carter has seen. This sharing of perspectives is a part of the goal Temple University’s Center for Intergenerational Learning hopes to achieve with the Time Out Program, according to Smith. Besides Time Out, the center reaches its goal of mobilizing people of different generations to serve as resources to each other and their communities with such activities as bringing together retired elders and primary grade students for reading and theater productions on social issues. The Chestnut Hill Health Care Foundation supported Temple’s Center for Intergenerational Learning in March with a grant for the Time Out Program. Susan Hansen, executive director of the foundation, said the Time Out program is distinctive not only because it aids caregivers who try to keep their elders at home, but because it promotes intergenerational interaction. “The Time Out Program is a great complement to the mission of the Foundation, as one of our goals is to keep the elderly safe and healthy in their homes as long as possible,” Hansen said in an e-mail message. “The Time Out program prevents unnecessary or early institutional intervention by providing not only care for the elders, but also respite for the family caregivers.” When she visited participants in the program, Hansen said she was surprised to learn from caregivers and students that elders actually listen to the students more than the family members because, as most people do, the seniors were likely to get aggravated quicker by family than the newly-introduced students. “It’s not just a Temple University program either,” Hansen said. “Students from many area colleges participate and the students have high involvement in the program.” The money is earmarked for caregivers in the Chestnut Hill, Mt. Airy, Germantown and Roxborough sections of the city, and Smith said she already has students lined up for families in this area that need the care Time Out can provide. “It’s a tremendous resource to families,” Smith said. “Other care-giving agencies cost so much more, and these families have so many other expenses. They don’t need nursing aid for lunch and engaging activities.” Rosemarie Allen, 56, really appreciates the “time out” the program offers. The Allens have cared for Rosemarie’s mother for 12 years now, when Rosemarie, concerned because Hess was living along, asked her to move into the 300-year-old Fairmount Park home she and her husband Jim rent. But only recently did Hess begin to develop serious health troubles. In August, during a three-and-a-half week hospital visit, Hess was diagnosed with end-stage heart disease, colon cancer and fluid in her lungs and put under hospice care. After a few weeks she fortunately was doing so well that the hospice deemed its care unnecessary, and Hess’ care switched to three-days-a-week basic nursing care. But the care does not provide a social outlet for Hess, who can no longer venture down the old house’s dangerous narrow spiral stairs and is beginning to show signs of dementia. “That’s how the Time Out program is so wonderful,” said Allen, who tries to spend as much time with her mother as possible, but works as a registered nurse three days a week and uses her “time out” to clean the house and run errands. Allen does have the nurse’s aide visit three times a week to help, but the rest of the time Hess is her responsibility, and days are filled with basic daily activities – washing, dressing, eating, resting – tasks that are made difficult and time-consuming by her mother’s condition. When Allen’s sister, who was visiting from Florida, said their mother was complaining of “loneliness,” Allen approached the Time Out program, which she had learned about from a flyer she was given after a support group lecture at Chestnut Hill Hospital. Since June, a Time Out student has come to the home two times a week to spend time with Hess. She is Keysha Smith, a 36-year-old mother of three and Temple social work student, who began work with the family in September, only two days before the Local interview. “Sometimes caregivers just need the break,” Smith said, and Time Out provides not only that, but activity for the elderly who sometimes are otherwise inactive. “The students come in and provide stimulation,” she added. And Hess is obviously thankful for the company. “On the days she doesn’t come, I have nothing to do — I depend on Keysha, or whomever is visiting,” Hess said, referring to the previous student. “I realize I could go out in the free time I’ve given by Keysha,” Allen said, but she noted that she usually has so much to do around the house that she doesn’t get to. Because of the cleaning, calling the doctor, organizing Hess’ finances and paying bills, Allen appreciates Keysha Smith’s company for her mother. “Having Keysha here alleviates the guilt of not being able to spend time in here,” Allen said, referring to the cozy second-floor bedroom, decorated with a soft crocheted blanket, images of family and friends, a bureau covered with snow globes and an oxygen machine. “It was much harder than I thought it would be,” said Allen, who as a former nurse for Bayard Nurses and the Federal government, assumed that “if I can take care of a multitude of patients, then I can take care of just one.” But Allen soon realized that one requires care all day long. “It’s never ending, all day, without an escape and that makes it hard,” she said. “But I’m not complaining — I chose to do this.” She said that ideally, she hopes to have a Time Out student come weekly for 12 consecutive hours so she and her husband can work on their Maryland property, a project they have planned for years. “I know my mother will be in good hands” with Time Out, she said. Allen pays for her mother’s medication through Medicare Part D, the controversial and complicated Federal solution to elderly health care. Since January she has paid more than $2,000, her husband said, and she is relying on the “modest savings” she has. But she is committed to keeping her mother at home, and Time Out’s inexpensive social care helps make that possible. Benian is also trying hard to keep her mother at home, as she would have done if she were still in Jamaica. “Growing up in Jamaica, we kept our elders at home with us until their death,” she said, though she acknowledges that one day, she and her sister may have to place Campbell in a home or hire full-time care. But for now, she has Carter and that is enough to keep her mother home and in her care until her memory and health deteriorates. Contact staff writer Kristin Pazulski at 215-248-8819 or Kristin@chestnuthilllocal.com |
