From Home Health Aide to Community Nurse:  Meet Behavioral Health’s Marie Tisi

Marie Tisi was on the 22nd floor of a Brooklyn apartment building when the second tower of the World Trade Center fell on 9/11. She and her patient, on oxygen for COPD, watched out the window as the building collapsed. While the city reeled in shock, Marie stayed with her patient, ensuring that their oxygen levels remained stable, their medication was administered, and they had someone by their side during the unfathomable tragedy.

“We are always here for New Yorkers regardless of what is happening,” says Marie. “Blackouts, hurricanes, pandemics. When the towers came down, I and my frontline colleagues were out and about the next day.”

That moment crystallizes Marie’s approach to her 25-year career: showing up for her community, whatever the circumstances. Now a Behavioral Health Nurse with our Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) team in Brooklyn, over the years Marie has been integral to a number of community-based VNS Health teams.

“I love the holistic part of home care, the feeling of truly meeting a client where they’re at—not just figuratively, but literally,” says Marie. For the ACT team members, she adds, that might include meeting clients in a park, on a street corner, or in a subway car.

A Chance Encounter Sparks a Pivot to Nursing

Marie’s nursing journey began in the late 1990s when she was a home health aide, employed through her church. One day, she met a VNS Health nurse whose work sparked Marie’s interest in community-based health care. Inspired by the possibility of providing holistic care to people in their homes and communities, Marie enrolled in nursing school and got her license at age 34—only one year older, she points out, than Florence Nightingale was when she started her nursing career.

Marie’s vision became a reality when she joined VNS Health as a nurse in the year 2000, providing care to residents of the Brooklyn neighborhood she grew up in. Close ties were everywhere: She recalled treating the grandmother of a child who attended preschool with her son—both families attended the same church. It was like caring for extended family, she says.

Marie went on to specialize in caring for people with HIV. After six years in long-term care, she expanded into HIV education, splitting time between direct patient care and community outreach. Teaching in community centers, she conducted 12-week holistic recovery programs for HIV-positive clients struggling with substance use and also educated caregivers. She loved teaching for its lasting impact, invoking the proverbial saying: Give a man to fish, he eats for a day; teach a man to fish he eats for a lifetime.

Marie’s Advice: Stay Agile and Open to Learning

Marie’s focus on behavioral health led her to our ACT team, where she helped establish the Brooklyn program. Marie works with the city’s most vulnerable population—severely mentally ill clients who cycle through emergency rooms and psychiatric hospitals, and who often are dealing with homelessness and substance use disorder. She earned psychiatric mental health board certification six years ago, adding to the HIV/AIDS certification she earned earlier.

Marie’s advice to new nurses reflects the lessons she’s learned over 25 years. “I would encourage them to get out of their comfort zone and utilize all the opportunities that VNS Health offers,” she says. Marie also advises nurses to remain agile and teachable, and be willing to redefine success for each client. “Sometimes the goalpost has to be moved,” she explains. “A client might not be taking their medication, but if they’re meeting with us every week and talking to us—that’s progress.”

Marie also emphasizes the importance of learning from everyone on the team. She has particular respect for the insights of home health aides, the crucial “eyes and ears” who implement clients’ care plans day in and day out.

“No matter what, we’re there to let our clients know it’s okay,” she reflects. “Going back to the days of Lillian Wald, VNS Health has been here through it all, supporting our neighbors, and that means everything to me. If there was one thing I’d like to be remembered for in my professional life, it would be my dedication to community.”