St. John the Baptist at 4987 State Route 81, Greenville, NY 12083 US - CAN YOU SPARE ONE DAY – ONE HOUR?

We need Y O U at the Kaaterskill Nursing Home as a Volunteer Visitor. Location - rear of ‘retired’ Catskill Hospital in Jefferson Heights, Catskill. When - Any Monday thru Saturday -- every first and third week. St. John’s parish covers first floor residents - first & third weeks of the month. St. Theresa’s parish of Windham covers second floor residents on the second and fourth week of each month. Calendars are prepared monthly showing your day to visit. If inconvenient, call Hilde at 966-5723, your day will be switched to another, no problem. We omit Sundays with wishful thinking that their families will visit then, YOU can also, any time is a good time. The Nursing Home does have requests and rules to follow. I. As much as you may be tempted to bring in goody treats DO NOT, until checking with head of staff. Reason-some have allergies and some may be diabetic-not allowed. II. We are not to ask or give any medical advice. If they wish to talk about themselves in any way, it is never to leave the establishment. When entering check in at main office to your right. Then go to Activity/Dining Room. At far end of room are cabinets and drawers. WE have the drawer with black tape and inside you will find badges to be worn while walking the halls. They tell the staff and residents who we are. BE SURE to return badges to the drawer after last visit for next person to use. Also in drawer are clipboards, BLUE for St. John and PINK for St. Theresa. Take BLUE board with you as you go from room to room. Fill in date on left side. After your visit step outside of room where you will find patient name, jot it down along with any comment or remarks you may wish to make. Write in your name/initial = tells us you were there. Never take notes in front of resident, write your comments outside of room. A visit consists of about 10 minutes, +/-. Suggest you start your visits from last room visited. This way everyone will have a visitor at some time. You can go from either end for visits. The first rooms from 113 on are mainly with patients there for rehab. Going backwards from 141 on are the residents there to stay. In all WE have 27 rooms to cover and NO ONE is expected to cover them all. You may come as many times a month as you like and stay as long as you like, NO LIMIT. Try to respect their mail time, hot food better than cold. Their meal hours are- Breakfast from 7:00 to 8:30; Lunch 12:30 to 1:30, Dinner from 5:00 to 6:30, work around these times. Some days you will find a room or two empty, they may be at a doctors appointment or just sitting outside in the sun, try again later. If asleep, it’s okay to gently tap or shoulder rub to see if they wish a visitor, often not really asleep but bored from watching TV, it puts them to sleep. Holy cards, booklets, rosaries in drawer are for you to hand out at any time. A SPECIAL REQUEST for anyone who is a Eucharistic Minister, WE NEED YOUR ASSISTANCE. The first Thursday of each month Father Schiffer says a Mass at which time Holy Communion is given out. For the residents unable to come to the service a room visit is made to distribute Communion. A Prayer Service is also done on the third Thursday of each month by a lay person from St. John’s Parish and here too Communion is distributed. WE NEED EUCHARISTIC MINISTERS available on those Thursdays who can meet at 2:30 pm to help give out Communion. CAN YOU HELP DO THIS??? Several lay people from our Parish have had training in doing a Prayer Service in case Father is unable to come do Mass. If you are one of these people and are available on Thursdays would you consider doing such a Prayer Service at the Nursing Home? I’m sure those doing it now would be more than happy to assist you until you feel comfortable doing it yourself. We need back-up in case someone can’t make it due to illness or ??? A few have inquired, interested in becoming a visitor but feeling uneasy doing it alone. We too prefer two also but we don’t have enough volunteers, yet. To anyone feeling this way please DO NOT let this stop you from joining us. You can go with someone already assigned to that date or I will go with you myself. In no time the residents will know who you are and look forward to seeing you come through that door to visit. Rooms consist of 1 to 4 beds. Where there are 2 in the room, the first bed into the room is bed #1. (Bed # and names are posted outside of room). Rooms with 4 beds- first bed into room on left is #1, go clockwise thereafter to 4. Whose Who- Organizing monthly calendars – Hilde Tompkins - 966-5723; Assistant – Barbara Frisbie-Gilleran - 966-8550. Activities Director at Nursing Home – Susan Meyers - 943-9380 – Ext. 127 Prayer Services by Neil McHugh – 966-4676; Steve DeGiovanni – 966-8043 Music by Jane & Steve DeGiovanni – 966-8043 and Theresa Bey – 966-4962 QUESTIONS or to say you wish to volunteer, call 966-5723 THANK YOU………..Hilde Tompkins

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