St. Johnland Spring Appeal Newsletter

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UPCOMING
EVENTS
April 15th
15th Annual Chinese Auction
& Food Tasting
June
Historical Exhibit
at Kings Park Library
EASTER BONNET PARTy
Our research has recently uncovered the fact that e rev. muhlenberg’s church of the
holy communion in manhattan was the first church to use flowers on the altar in the
1870s, and after the easter service the congregation in procession up broadway brought
the flowers to the sick at St. luke’s infirmary. is seems to have been the origin of the
new york custom of the easter parade. With that in mind, our recreation Department
staged a wonderful parade with amazing bonnets made by the residents themselves.
July 6th
13th Annual CSHL Symposium
ADULT DAyCARE
June 18th
Reunion of St. Johnland Children
St. Johnland’s two Adult Daycare programs are in a full swing providing
services to the individuals residing at home with their loved ones.
Our Social Adult Day program offers
assistance in personal care, supervision and
monitoring, recreation and nutrition.
Our medical program, in addition to the
services above, addresses a wide range of
medical needs. While these programs care
for the registrants, we also like to let the
caregivers know that we are there to
support them as well. to that end, we
continue to be proactive.
OctOber 27th
150th Anniversary Dinner
at e Watermill
nOvember 14th
St. Johnland Lecture –
Smithtown Historical Society
ST. JOHNLAND TRUSTEES
trudy h. calabrese
President
David h. Deming
Vice President
carl h. Doerge, Jr.
Vice President
Sharon A. Fuentes
Vice President
peter l. Fetterolf
Secretary
William D. Keen
Treasurer
Arthur F. brings
marian conway
Joan m. heaney
virginia p. Jacobsen
mary Alice Kolodner
Fredric r. lamarca
Allison mitchell
heather Spehr
brian Swiggett
Arlene Q. vermylen
omas r. Zoller
June 6th
9th Annual Golf Classic
Huntington Country Club
Honoring e Townwide Fund
of Huntington
September 9th
Gala at Huntington Country Club
Honoring Gina Jacobsen
395 SunKen meADOW rD., KingS pArK, ny 11754 • 631-269-5800 • WWW.StJOhnlAnD.Org
this Spring the Alzheimer’s Association has
sponsored three educational workshops at
St. Johnland.
in addition, we are participating in a number of health and wellness fairs
across long island to spread the word about adult daycare services.
if you see our booth at the next fair you visit please come and say “hello”.
MEMBERS EMERITI
gustav v. Dupeza
Stephen c. eyre
edward m. lamont,
t. carleton lee
leonard l. marshall, Jr.
Kay Z. miller
James e. Swiggett
ADVISORy BOARD
peter c. Kohler, chairman
michael A. Agnes
philip D. calderone
martin r. cantor
marilyn F. cunniff
emily F. Franchina,
margaret m. hargraves
Deborah t. hauser
Frederic ingraham
Susan Jalbert
J. William Johnson
edward m. lamont
mary D. lindsay
Kay Z. miller
patricia petersen
m. liz piazza
William S. robertson
caroline monti Saladino
linda l. vila
James A. Woods
LETTER FROM OUR
CEO/ADMINISTRATOR
Spring is characteristically associated with growth and renewal. in
keeping with this theme, this newsletter focuses on the many ways St.
Johnland continues to grow. We are proud to celebrate our 150th
anniversary. During the time since our founding, St. Johnland has
grown to be a respected center of excellence among long island
healthcare facilities. Our residents experience growth and renewal in
the programs we provide, some of which you will read about here.
i hope this newsletter will give you insight into our organization and
the pride we take in serving our residents and the community.
CELEBRATING 150 yEARS
e Society of St. Johnland is celebrating its 150th
anniversary. established at the end of the civil War
in 1866 by e rev. William muhlenberg, the Society
provided a home for veterans and orphans who
came from new york city to a rural retreat that was
to become a self-sustaining industrial village which
encompassed a church, schoolhouse, printing shop
and foundry, village hall and library—20 buildings in
all. e farm, manned by the residents and staff,
provided ample produce, meat and dairy products
for the community.
Dr. muhlenberg had been a social innovator, starting
St. luke’s hospital and the first free episcopal church,
both in manhattan, as well as several secondary
schools. his dream was to create a utopian
community on the 600 acres that he purchased for
$14,000. e area became known as St. Johnland;
when the long island railroad moved eastward in
1872, the station was named St. Johnland. later,
when the Kings county hospital established their
Asylum (later the Kings park psychiatric center) in
1885 the name was officially changed to Kings park.
in the early 1950s St. Johnland ended its services for
children and focused on the elderly. today St.
Johnland nursing center cares for over 300
individuals each day, some in long term skilled
nursing, some in the Alzheimer’s/dementia,
traumatic brain injury and subacute units and others
in two adult daycare programs. One hundred and
fifty years after its founding the nursing center
remains true to its mission…
to create a caring and supportive environment
committed to the highest standards of quality
health care… to uphold the principles of human
dignity and worth… affirm the right of every
individual to maintain the optimum quality of life.
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WELCOME TO OUR
NEW STAFF DIRECTORS
PHySICAL THERAPy NEWS
anks to a generous grant from the Faith
home Foundation, we have been able to
purchase four versatile new pieces of
equipment for our traumatic brain injury
(tbi) unit gym. e Solo Step Fall
protection and balance System consists of
a ceiling mounted track and trolley with
an attached harness. patients improve
their strength and balance and gain selfconfidence as they concentrate solely on
walking in a safe environment. it can be
used with one therapist alone, reducing
staff involvement, and eliminating the risk
of patient falls and associated injuries. is
is an excellent piece of equipment that will
be used by almost all our rehab patients.
Another piece of equipment encourages
lower body muscle strengthening in
preparation for patients who are ready to
begin to stand, balance and walk. it is also
helpful with other lower body activities of
daily living like dressing. e resistance
can be adjusted for individual patients to
provide the “just right challenge”.
Finally, a new portable device is designed
to provide constant electrical impulses for
neuromuscular retraining in patients who
have suffered stroke or tbi. increased
muscle activity increases the blood flow
which leads to greater healing. is
equipment can also be used for our
nursing center patients who suffer from
edema, lymphedema and in any
orthopedic injury. because of its
portability, patients can also use these in
their individual rooms.
We were also able to purchase some ipads
which are a wonderful Occupational
erapy aid for cognitive and visual
retraining and for Speech erapy for
stroke and tbi patients, along with
microphones, adaptive stands, styluses
and keyboards. ere are dozens of free
apps to help patients with visual
discrimination as well as the general
improvement of eye-hand coordination.
NEW MURALS
anks to our connection with Splashes of
hope, a not-for-profit based in
huntington, the residents in our
Alzheimer’s/dementia unit have three new
murals to enjoy. ree 4'x8' peaceful
window scenes will encourage the
residents to let their imaginations wander
beyond the nursing home walls. Splashes
of hope, founded in 1996, is dedicated to
creating art to transform nursing and
social service spaces and facilitate healing.
eir custom-designed murals and other
artistic projects bring smiles to the faces of
patients, staff and visitors. e project was
sponsored by a grant through Suffolk
county legislator Dr. William Spencer.
We are pleased to
welcome two new
Directors. e first is
carolyn O’brien mS,
ctrS as Director of
recreation. She is
responsible for
managing the recreation erapy staff. in
this field for over 27 years, carolyn most
recently served as Director of recreation
at e grand nursing and rehab center in
Whitestone and previously at medford
multicare center and gurwin nursing &
rehab center. She is a member of trASc
erapeutic recreation Association of
Suffolk county & trAli erapeutic
recreation Association of long island.
ms. O’brien has always been attracted to
and involved in helping people, starting
with volunteering as a teenager at
huntington hospital and at camps for
mentally and physically disabled children.
She holds a b.A. in therapeutic recreation
from ithaca college and a masters in
gerontology (summa cum laude) from
Southampton college.
RESIDENT ART SHOW
creative outlets are known to be
therapeutic for those in nursing facilities.
So many of our residents at St. Johnland
have benefitted from the Art classes with
roberta (bertie) erlagen on monday
afternoons for the past eleven years. An
average weekly class has 18 residents
ranging from 61 to 97 years old. the
artwork that they create is just beautiful.
many of these residents have never picked
up a paint brush in their lives and many
have significant physical and/or cognitive
daily challenges. Once they completed their
latest acrylic fish projects in January, we
thought it would be great to showcase
their works. carolyn O’brien and Jennifer
haug from recreation therapy planned
with the residents and bertie to have a
“meet the Artist” Art Show to showcase
their artistic creations which they have
worked on over the past year.
many families showed up for the event.
each resident artist was brought to the
front of the group to discuss their work and
a brief biography was given of each artist.
everyone present in the room – residents,
staff and families/visitors – could see how
proud the artists were to be able to share
their works. it was quite moving! paintings
depicted lighthouses, butterflies, birch
trees, fruits and vegetables, and other
colorful designs using such mediums as
colored charcoal, watercolor and acrylic
paints.
Following the show, we served light
refreshments to our guests and all of the
fish paintings were displayed around the
resident Dining room with the resident
biographies and photographs underneath,
much like a museum display. All are
welcome to stop in to see the paintings and
read a little about each artist who are all so
proud to share their works of art!
ilene isaacs, lmSW, is
the new Director of
Social Work. She is
responsible for
managing all of the
Social Work staff who
care for the residents.
in this field for over 17 years, ms. isaacs
most recently served as a social worker at
visiting nurse Service and hospice of
Suffolk after leaving St. Johnland in 2011.
ms. isaacs is particularly interested in the
geriatric population – in supporting
residents and their families as individuals
make the transition to long term care.
She holds a b.A. in Sociology and
Anthropology from Dowling college and a
m.A. in Social Work from Stony brook
university.
Welcome carolyn and ilene!
LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION!
lights, camera, Action! February 23rd was
St. Johnland’s 1st Annual “Oscars”
ceremony. residents, families and staff
voted in 17 categories such as best laugh,
nicest eyes, best personality, best Singer, and
most likely to brighten your Day, among
others. All nominees were posted and
congratulated. is was a great event that
promoted a lot of resident/staff involvement
and there was a great deal of “buzz” as to
who would win each category.
e red carpet was rolled out as the awards
were presented in the afternoon. Winners
came up to the podium via the red carpet
and accepted their awards with a brief
acceptance speech. Some winners
humorously stated, “i’d like to thank the
Academy.” resident ray mcloughlin sang
“Danny boy” when he accepted his win for
best Singer…it was touching! e paparazzi
were on hand to take pictures of all the
winners. everyone celebrated at the “After
party” with Sparkling cider and delicious
chocolate mousse.