October 15, 2019 —Instead of hand lotion, deodorant, and other
toiletries, the Borden Health Center’s “Store Cart,”
operated by a cadre of Independent Living
volunteers, will now offer as it rolls from room to
room an assortment of free magazines, puzzle
books, pencils, note cards, and — most important
of all — a friendly one-to-one visit. The cart,
in fact, will function as a sort of spring-board for
the visit, a starting point.
This shift of emphasis is part of an overall
movement in the Borden Center (skilled nursing
care) and the Webster Center (assisted living)
toward “person-centered care,” in which each
resident is seen as a unique individual, someone
who merits personal visits and small-group
activities that match his or her special interests.
“We’re getting away from the idea of ‘activities’
as large groups of people, all doing the
same thing,” explains Laura Hotinger, Resident
Life/Activities Coordinator. “Of course we’ll still
have some group games and get-togethers.
But we want to make everything more homelike.”
When imagining a small-scale and homelike
atmosphere, Laura and her colleagues hope
eventually to see a reconfiguration of the
Borden Center with an emphasis on “neighborhoods,”
two or three of them perhaps, each with
a living area, a dining area, and a family style
kitchen where residents might make themselves
a sandwich or a cup of cocoa whenever they
feel like it.
Kendal’s current Master Plan embraces the
“neighborhood” idea, but, of course, any decision
about what will actually be done is still in
the future. This future might be getting a bit
closer, though.
Laura points out that the Webster Center is
already something of a model for the “neighborhood”
concept — kitchen and all. Webster has
twenty studio apartments and primarily serves
contract residents who entered Kendal in an
Independent Living cottage or apartment but
who now find themselves in need of providing
a higher level of care.
The Borden Center is different in many ways.
With its sixty beds, it offers skilled nursing care
to the entire Rockbridge area and has done so
since 2002, when Lexington’s Stonewall Jackson
Hospital discontinued its extended care unit
and many of the patients transferred to Kendal’s
newly-built facility. (The Kendal newsletter for
October, 2002, describes a parade of ambulances,
vans, and private cars arriving on “a
warm, sunny Saturday morning” in late September.
Independent Living residents greeted
the newcomers and helped them settle into their
rooms.)
At present, Kendal’s Independent Living residents
are a definite minority in the Borden
Center — fewer than ten in mid-February — and
consequently the Borden Center is very much
oriented to, and enmeshed with, the larger
Lexington/Rockbridge community. Some of our
per diem Borden residents are here for a short
stay, perhaps recuperating and receiving therapy
after surgery or an illness; others have
been with us for years. Families and friends
come from all over to visit. There are no restricted
hours, and visitors may walk in at any
time. Many of the volunteers helping with
activities at Borden come from the wider community,
while others, like the “store cart” group,
come from Kendal’s Independent Living sector.
Laura especially urges volunteers to drop in
for informal visits. “Borden residents love music,
and if you turn on their iPod for them, you
can both listen.” The iPods are individually
loaded with selections chosen by the resident or
sometimes by his or her family, and are available
through Kendal’s “Music and Memory”
program. (Research has shown that listening
to one’s favorite music is not only a lifelong joy
but an aid to health and alertness.)
Volunteers are welcome to take part in
programs that are coordinated by the Activities
staff or to originate their own personal missions.
Some of these gifts of time are very simple.
Two Independent Living residents, almost every
evening after supper, walk over to Borden and
chat with people they know. Another frequently
spends an hour of a Wednesday morning
reading poetry to an attentive group in the
Borden sunroom — a project that was entirely
this residents’ own idea.
–Article written by resident Jo McMurtry from original appeared in the March 2016 Residents’ Newsletter. Article slightly adapted for website.