Valora Ford is Honored With the James R. Withrow Jr. Award, Home Health Aide of the Year

October 12, 2022–The 2022 James R. Withrow Jr. Award for Home Health Aide of the Year is a tradition that began in 1988. This award is given in memory of James R. Withrow Jr., one of the original members of the Personal Care Board of Directors. The Home Health Aide of the Year best personifies the qualities of the ideal paraprofessional. The criteria for the award were developed by a team of Home Health Aides and Supervisors. This year’s Home Health Aide of the Year is Valora Ford. Valora has been a VNS Health team member since 2012. When you have Valora Ford on your side, you know you’re in very good hands. That’s because Valora makes sure you’re taken care of. For Valora, restoring a person’s dignity and confidence as they age or after they’ve had an illness and reassuring her patients that they have the right to live life on

VNS Health Personal Care Holds Its 39th Annual Honor Awards Event in Person After Two Years of Celebrating Virtually

October 11, 2022–On Monday evening, VNS Health team members gathered at the Westin Hotel, next door to our 220 East 42nd Street office, to recognize the outstanding achievements and dedication of VNS Health’s entire Personal Care team, and in particular to honor the recipients of the various 2022 Personal Care Honor Awards. Also honored at the ceremony were employees celebrating five-year milestone anniversaries within the organization. Among the evening’s highlights was an inspiring video celebrating the extraordinary care that VNS Health’s home health aides provide every day. You can watch that video here: Congratulations to all the 2022 Personal Care honorees! To read more about each of this year’s VNS Health Personal Care winners, click on their names below. Juan Feliciano, Hospice Care Program Excellence Award Hui Qing Li, Health Plans Excellence Award Rosa Sorto, Home Care Excellence Award Bibi Mohamed, Private Care Services Excellence Award Erica Charles, The Richard Flender Grace

In New Piece for Medium, Jim Rolla, SVP, Personal Care Team Spotlights the Work of HHA Marie Dorviline, and Why HHAs are an Essential Resource

September 27, 2022–

Special Report: VNS Health Home Health Aide Teresita Carter Describes Her Visit to the White House!

August 16, 2022–When President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris hosted an event at the White House on April 5th to mark the 12th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), VNS Health home health aide Teresita Carter was in the audience, seated just a few yards from the podium. Teresita attended the event as a representative of the local 1199SEIU union. Because she chooses to work 17 hours a week caring for a single client in Far Rockaway, Teresita doesn’t qualify for union-sponsored healthcare coverage—which means she benefited directly from the ACA’s expanded access to health insurance. “As the largest healthcare workers’ union in the country, we want to make sure folks continue to have access to affordable health care,” says Katia Guillaume, Home Care B Vice-President, 1199SEIU. “Teresita, the only union representative from New York State to attend the White House event, was chosen from a pool of caregivers

“If You Work Hard, There is No Problem That Can’t Be Solved” – Meet Yuehua Wu, VNS Health Home Health Aide

August 3, 2022–“As long as you have a sense of responsibility and love, you don’t need to worry,” says Yuehua Wu, a VNS Health Personal Care home health aide, about her experiences caring for her clients. Wu, who is from Guangdong, China, has been working as a home health aide for VNS Health Personal Care since 2016, after a friend introduced her to the organization. Over the past six years, she has gone from being an uncertain rookie to an experienced aide whose clients trust like a family member. “At the very beginning, I didn’t know how to interact with seniors,” Wu says. She became a home health aide in her early 40s and she still remembers how nervous she was her first day on the job. “Aides only talk with their mouth without doing anything with their hands,” her client told Wu on her first day of work. Although she felt

A Day in the Life of Personal Care and MLTC Nurse Xiang Jin

July 11, 2022–Welcome to another edition of “A Day in the Life”—a Frontline series that follows team members from different parts of VNS Health as they go about a typical day at work. Xiang Jin, a nurse in VNS Health Personal Care, works three days a week calling on patients who belong to our Chinatown NNORC (Neighborhood Naturally Occurring Retirement Community), and two days per week caring for members of VNS Health’s MLTC health plan. We asked him to take us through a sample day of his (very full!) schedule. 5:30 a.m. I started at VNS Health six years ago as a per-diem nurse with the MLTC health plan, then I was offered three days a week as a NNORC nurse. I continue to work with the MLTC plan Mondays and Fridays because of the nursing shortage. I also do my own scheduling, which makes for a very busy week and long days! Because

Become a Caregiver and Start Again — Meet JinXia Huang, Partners in Care Home Health Aide

May 3, 2022–Man proposes, God disposes. What do you do with changes in life? Partners in Care HHA JinXia Huang was planning to reunite with her parents in the U.S., but her father passed away a few days before she arrived. Her American dream was broken. However, she didn’t lose faith and hope, she chose to be a HHA and start her new life. She said, “Thanks for this job as a home health aide. The flexible schedule allows us to be self-reliant and help others.” JinXia Huang is from Taishan, Guangdong. The three sisters of Huang’s family have been separated from their parents for many years. Their parents worked in the United States and supported the family. Before the US visa interview in 2012, the father suddenly passed away and he failed to see his daughters. Her American dream of family reunion was broken, and the pain and depression took more

May 2022 Patient Letters

April 28, 2022–Our VNSNY colleagues continue to prove how resilient, dedicated and just plain amazing the entire VNSNY organization is! The following are excerpts from a few of the many recent letters, phone calls, and emails we’ve received from grateful patients and clients as well as family members that reflect an outstanding consumer experience. Bronx Thank You for the Wonderful Care! “I am writing to thank you for the wonderful care I received from your nurse, Sultana Alibasic,” wrote one Bronx home care patient. “My primary care physician connected me to VNSNY to care for a huge open wound that did not heal properly from abdominal surgery. Sultana treated me almost daily for over a month and would not discharge me until the wound was 100% healed.” The patient described Sultana as kind, caring and professional. “I am very grateful to Sultana and always looked forward to her visits. She wasn’t just

“Working with the Heart”: Meet Gladys Escalante, Partners in Care Home Health Aide

April 21, 2022–Gladys Escalante has only been with Partners in Care for a short time, but has two decades of experience in the field of home health care. “I switched to Partners in Care because they have better benefits than other companies; like health insurance,” she explains. Gladys came to New York City from Ecuador more than twenty years ago to care for her mother who lived here. The first years in this city were the hardest for her: “When I arrived, I didn’t know the language,” she says. “That was the most difficult. But once you learn the language, everything improves. This is a country where you can get ahead if you work and make an effort.” Today, Gladys lives in Woodside, Queens, with her three daughters, and her mother lives in the apartment across the street. “I’m very lucky that we’re all together,” Gladys tells us. Then she adds proudly,

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