Nazareth Home receives “Best Practices Award” from Kentucky Initiative for Quality Nursing Home Standards

The KYIQ Best Practices Award is an annual award presented in recognition of exemplary best practices that serve as a model for other nursing homes to adopt in order to enhance the quality of care provided to all residents.

The KYIQ group is a independent advocacy group organized to promote public awareness to the need to preserve the dignity and well being of loved ones in the nursing home. They are working in partnership with the state’s Long Term Ombudsman program to provide a way for KY facilities to share their expertise with others so to achieve the KYIQ group’s stated goal of fostering collaboration among providers, families, advocates and elected officials to support a level of care for all nursing home residents. This “mentoring project” designed in 2009 creates a way for best practices and effective standards to be shared.

The award is presented to homes who demonstrate sustained success in the criteria areas of Continuity of Care, Training, Family Support, and Innovation in workplace, care and environmental practices. The CMS 5 star rating must be at a 4 with a sustained 4 in staffing.

“We are honored to receive this award and believe the criteria represent the key ingredients to quality in long term care. The process was a great way to recognize residents, families and staff at Nazareth Home and the contribution everyone makes in creating a community that is a great place to live and a great place to work.” — Mary Haynes, Administrator

For more information contact:

mhaynes@nazhome.org

502.459.2527

Recently Sister Maggie Fisher wrote to the First Lady and received a letter in return …

Click here to read the full letter.

Community Education Series

Focus on Alzheimer’s Disease and Community Support

Given that an estimated 74,000 Kentuckians currently are living with Alzheimer’s disease and this number will increase dramatically in the next 10 years due to the aging baby boomers entering the age of greatest risk, it is vital we all understand the needs of the individuals and their families who are affected by the disease.

Nazareth Home is committed to supporting the needs of our culture as we age. This series will be hosted and facilitated by a program director and psychologist who lead the dementia care program at Nazareth Home.

The titles and dates of these offerings are from 5:30PM-6:30PM on

Come ask questions, listen, and learn about various topics relating to dementia.

The facilitators are Stephen Bliss, Psy D, clinical geriatric psychologist and the clinical director for Charity Court, the dementia care program at Nazareth Home.

And, Gretchen Houchin, Program Director of Charity Court, support group leader and Alzheimer’s educator.

This event is open to the public and is free, however reservations are requested. Please contact Gretchen Houchin at (502) 473-2396 if you would like to attend.

Nazareth Home — located in Louisville, Kentucky — is a 168 bed long-term care and Rehab center with specialty programs for short term Rehab, Memory Care and long term care.

Nazareth Home was established in 1976 as a healthcare ministry sponsored by the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth.

It’s a harsh reality in many parts of the world, young girls kept from school because they are forced to walk miles each day gathering water for cooking and cleaning, crops that dry up because of a lack of irrigation, and children who fall ill after drinking contaminated water.

UNICEF paints a stark picture when citing lack of sanitar

y water around the world. According to a 2009 article, almost 50 percent of the developing world’s population (2.5 billion people) lack adequate sanitation facilities and over 884 million people still use unsafe drinking water sources. Inadequate access to safe water and sanitation services, coupled with poor hygiene practices, kills and sickens thousands of children every day and leads to impoverishment and diminished opportunities for thousands more.

UNICEF further notes that poor sanitation, water and hygiene, have many other serious repercussions. Children – and particularly girls – are denied their right to education because their schools lack private and decent sanitation facilities. Women are forced to spend large parts of their day fetching water. Poor farmers and wage earners are less productive due to illness, health systems are overwhelmed, and national economies suffer.

In March of 2007, SCNs spoke out about the right of each person to have access to water.

In a Corporate Statement, SCNs call on themselves and others to “support actions that ensure access to sufficient, safe and affordable water for all people, especially women and children in regions suffering currently from scarcity of water.”

From this statement flowed SCN efforts to improve access to safe water for families around the world. In the fall of 2008, five water projects across India and Nepal were funded. The projects included wells, hand pumps, water tanks, water container filtration and education.

SCN family members across the Congregation joined local residents in making decisions and forging ahead with the hard work necessary to carry out the water projects. Numerous hands made lighter work of the manual labor that went into digging the wells in spite of obstacles that included waiting for the ground to dry, an abundance of stones, extreme heat, and lower than anticipated water tables.

Creativity in the form of drawings, essays, and street plays was plentiful as efforts were made to educate as many people as possible on topics ranging from waterborne diseases, to the efficient use of water, to steps to harvest water and improve sanitation.

Though not all projects are complete, improved access and storage for clean drinking water, the ability to irrigate land for crops, having water during the dry season, being able to filter water, and education on health and waterborne diseases have improved countless lives across India and Nepal.