Flu clinic to be held Oct. 17

By Ruth Melville

In addition to the regular items in the town budget—road repair, school funding, the fire department, pensions—the Town of Norfolk also provides funds to outside organizations that provide services to the town. One of these organizations is Foothills Visiting Nurse & Home Care (commonly known as the VNA, short for visiting nurse association).

Started in 1922, the Foothills VNA is now in its 96th year. The organization is state-licensed, Medicare-certified, full-service home care provider and hospice. It is also a nonprofit, which is unusual: of the 100 VNAs in Connecticut, only 25 of them are nonprofit (nationally, only 10 percent are nonprofit). The Foothills VNA employs about 100 people, 95 percent of whom live in Northwest Connecticut.

The Foothills VNA serves most towns in Northwest Connecticut, but the primary towns are Winsted, Barkhamsted, New Hartford, Colebrook and Norfolk. All of these towns used to have their own public health departments, but one by one they merged with the Winsted VNA (as it was then called). Norfolk joined in 1979. But starting even earlier, since 1972, Norfolk resident Ted Veling has been on the board of directors—a remarkable term of service. In 1991 the official name of the organization was changed to Foothills Visiting Nurse & Home Care.

Although most of the VNA’s clients are covered by Medicare, Medicaid or private insurance, everyone who needs care is accepted, regardless of his or her ability to pay.

Most of the services provided by the Foothills VNA fall into three basic categories: home health care, public health and hospice. Basic home health-care services include skilled nursing; physical, occupational and speech therapy; and visits by social workers and home health aides. More specialized care would encompass things like wound care, mother and child care, nutrition counseling and IV therapy. Last year the VNA made more than 50,000 home visits.

As part of its mission to promote public health, the VNA offers blood pressure and cholesterol monitoring and foot care in senior centers and retirement homes. It also holds flu clinics. This year’s clinic in Norfolk, which is open to anyone over the age of 18, will be at Meadowbrook, on Oct. 17, from 12:30 to 2 p.m. For the first time, the clinic will be offering the high-dose vaccine formulated for people over 65.

The Hospice Program provides medical, emotional and spiritual support to people at the end of life. Medical professionals, therapists, home health aides and trained volunteers can help with pain management, palliative care and bereavement counseling. Families can contact hospice services at any time of day or night.

Each of the five primary towns gives a yearly allocation to the Foothills VNA. Norfolk’s contribution this year will be $13,052. In return for such funding, residents of the five towns receive full service through the Health Promotion program. Under this program, the VNA will continue to send out nurses, for free, to see patients—usually elderly and living alone—even when they no longer qualify for home care under their insurance plans. Last year, 46 residents of Norfolk received home health services from the VNA.

Michael Caselas, the executive director of the Foothills VNA, says that the VNA’s job has grown and changed over the 17 years he’s been the executive director. One of the most important changes has been the increasing use of technology. Nurses use the Winsted office as a home base, and they each have a desk or cubicle there, but all the clinicians also have a laptop so they can connect to the main computer from home.

In addition, thanks to telemonitoring, nurses can now track patients remotely. Blood pressure cuffs, scales and oximeters (which measure blood oxygen levels) can be connected to the office by Bluetooth. Patients can in effect monitor themselves, taking daily readings and sending in the data. Only if a problem is spotted does a medical professional need to make a home visit.

Caselas also notes that the home health-care industry has become more competitive. Most clients come through referrals, from doctors, hospitals, or senior facilities, but Caselas stresses that patients always have a choice. He is proud that the Foothills VNA has been helping local residents for almost a century, and says that their services are “second to none.” And this quality of care has received national recognition: for nine consecutive years the Foothills VNA has been awarded HomeCare Elite’s recognition as one of the best home care agencies in the United States.

This is the first in a series highlighting the organizations in the Norfolk town budget listed under Health and Welfare.