VNSNY Heroes of 2020
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The Partners in Care Education Department: Training the Front Lines in Challenging Times
August 27, 2020–Home health aides are invaluable. They’re the boots on the ground for providing assistance with activities of daily living to patients and plan members, and they’ve never been more needed than during these critical pandemic times. The Partners in Care Education Department provides the thorough instruction and support that ensures that all Partners in Care home health aides have the necessary skills to care for their patients. “The department goes beyond the New York State Department of Health’s education requirements,” says physical therapist Sonia Rapaport, a Rehabilitation Instructor with Partners in Care. “No matter what pops up—from Ebola to COVID-19—the Education Department has always been there. Everybody jumps as high as they need to jump to get all the HHAs caught up as quickly as possible.” These days, they’ve never had to jump higher. The huge challenge with COVID, of course, has been that training has to turn on a
VNSNY Employee Support Calls Provide Comfort and Social Connection
August 19, 2020–When VNSNY began doing telephone support calls for employees during the coronavirus pandemic’s spring peak, Amanda Weiner, VNSNY Organizational Development Specialist, recalls how moving it was to see such widespread and immediate response to the support. “We had 168 people phone in to the first call for Partners in Care home health aides, then 178 for the second—so we knew we were on to something right away,” she says. Amanda, who has been with VNSNY 15 years, teamed up with VNSNY Hospice Lead Social Worker Ben Cirlin to organize the emotional support calls—several of which Ben hosts himself. “I hope it reduces the stigma for people around asking for help,” she notes. “The powerful words I’ve heard from our committed staff will never leave me.” The earliest support calls were area-specific, including calls tailored to home health aides, and CHHA managers and field staff. Then it became apparent that open-staff
VNSNY CHOICE MLTC Care Managers Help a Member Navigate COVID-19 at Home
August 13, 2020–When a 73-year-old member of VNSNY CHOICE’s Medicaid Managed Long Term Care (MLTC) plan was diagnosed with COVID-19 in his local emergency department, the physicians chose to send him back home rather than admit him. It was a decision based largely on the support he had in place there, which included his wife and daughter, a VNSNY visiting nurse, and Partners in Care home health aides (HHA), all delivering care under the watchful supervision of the CHOICE MLTC care management team. Once home, the member’s CHOICE nurse care manager, Marie Ledain, arranged to keep critical HHA services in place in order to provide the member with help in bathing, meal preparation and other activities of daily living. Marie also advised the member’s wife and daughter on how they could protect themselves from COVID-19 exposure. “As care managers, we are committed and dedicated to our members,” Marie explains. “During this pandemic,
Partners in Care Home Health Aide Supervisors: Supporting HHAs Through the Pandemic
August 4, 2020–As COVID-19 took over our lives last spring, the world stood up and took notice of a new set of heroes—the doctors, nurses, and other health professionals who bravely battled the virus on the front lines. Fewer people, however, are aware of the tremendous efforts of another set of heroes: the nation’s dedicated home health aides (HHAs), and the equally dedicated HHA supervisors who support them. At Partners in Care, home to 7,000 home health aides, the COVID-19 pandemic meant these supervisors had to help their HHAs deal with daily concerns around going into the community and risking exposure to the coronavirus, in addition to their normal tasks of managing their HHAs’ work status and schedule. “When the pandemic hit, we lost a lot of aides. Many were too scared to work, and some of them got sick,” says Shama Barrett, Manager, Certified Bronx/Queens Choice Unit, who 16 Partners in
How VNSNY’s Education Department Innovated to Train and Support Staff During the Pandemic
July 23, 2020–As the COVID-19 pandemic hit the New York metropolitan area last March, VNSNY’s Education Department had to leap to the occasion and find a way to continue providing training and support to VNSNY staff in an environment where social distancing and infection control were suddenly paramount. “Having to move on a dime and begin educating virtually in such a short turnaround time was a challenge,” says Elizer Cooper-Audain, Director of Education & Professional Development, Clinical Support Services. “My entire team did an amazing job in response to COVID-19. We were in the last week of our March orientation when we had to pack up and prepare to work remotely. We completed the orientation virtually, and then prepared for subsequent months of new hire orientation, as well as the new nurse resident program.” Accomplishing all this, Elizer adds, involved “setting up virtual orientation, training everyone on how to use the platform
Nurse Fatima Shell-Sanchez: An “Angel” Who Uses Education to Protect Patients and Families
July 13, 2020–Across New York, coronavirus cases and hospitalizations are dramatically lower now than they were only weeks ago, during the region’s peak. The state is embarking on a phased opening, and summer is beckoning people outside. But COVID-19 remains a clear and present threat, making careful preventive measures as important as ever, especially for vulnerable populations and people living in crowded conditions. VNSNY Home Care Nurse Fatima Shell-Sanchez has been caring for Bronx patients with and without COVID-19 throughout the crisis. These days she is actually ramping up her message on vigilance and commitment to patient education, because she knows that social distancing can be a real challenge—especially on a sunny afternoon—and that protocol updates can be confusing, particularly when there are language barriers. “In these neighborhoods, people know the disease is out there,” says Fatima. “They call it the 19—but they say, ‘I hear it’s dying down. They’re opening up
Letters and Commendations! Multitudes of Gratitude To VNSNY Staff During the Pandemic
July 9, 2020–The COVID-19 pandemic has continued to show the resilience and dedication of our entire VNSNY organization in delivering exceptional care and service to our patients and members. Over 35 staff members are featured in the latest patient letters and CHOICE member commendations. Read them here. Click here to read the patient letters. Click here to read the CHOICE Commendations To read other Letters and Commendations from previous months, click here.
VNSNY’s Volunteers Provide a Multi-Generational Outpouring of Support
July 7, 2020–When VNSNY volunteer Olga Ferguson learned that a member of her daughter’s Girl Scout troop was sewing cloth masks for her Silver Award project, Olga thought right away of VNSNY. That’s how seventh-grader Michaela Interlandi, assisted by her mother, Wendy, came to make 400 colorful and creatively patterned cloth masks for VNSNY staff. “It feels really great to do my part, knowing that the essential workers have what they need and they won’t be struggling as much,” says Michaela, whose cloth masks are used daily by VNSNY staff for commuting to work and other non-clinical settings. “I was happy when they posted pictures on Instagram in the masks.” Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, VNSNY volunteers have rallied to support and uplift VNSNY staff, patients and families. With hospice volunteers, who are an essential part of VNSNY Hospice, having to suspend in-person visits during the pandemic, hospice
CMHS’s Clinical Case Management Program—Helping New Yorkers Recover their Lives…and Help Others
June 30, 2020–Working under contract with New York City’s Human Resources Administration, VNSNY’s Clinical Case Management (CCM) program, administered by VNSNY’s Community Mental Health Services (CMHS), assists recipients of public assistance who are dealing with substance use disorders and other barriers to self-sufficiency, connecting them with vital community resources and one-on-one support. Besides providing links to specific services, the program’s case managers give clients moral support and guidance each step along the way, helping them identify and appreciate their accomplishments to date and maintain the confidence to keep moving forward. “We are really part of the social fabric of our clients’ lives,” says the program’s Clinical Case Manager for Staten Island, Christina Nichols. Because of COVID-19, VNSNY clinical case managers like Christina are temporarily conducting virtual visits and offering support to clients remotely. “It’s a definite adjustment—they miss seeing us, and I miss seeing them and observing their lives up close,” says