Our mission is to provide quality Home Health Care, Hospice and education to individuals and families in our

communities so that they may reach their highest level of independence.

The Butterfly Files 2020

Foot Care &

Blood Pressure Clinics

See our calendar for

dates/details

Grief Support and Individual

Counseling Sessions

See our calendar for

dates/details

As of the printing of this

newsletter dates and times are

subject to change due to

COVID-19. Please CALL

to verify all items listed

on our calendar.

June Happenings

Welcome Stacie!

Our new Weekend Baylor!

Stacie has come to us with lots of experience, including home health and hospice care! She grew up here in New Hampshire then moved west to serve in the Navy! She has been an RN for 40 years! Stacie is very happy to be back in New Hampshire!

We are very happy and

lucky to have such

an amazing and

experienced RN join our

team!

Franklin VNA & Hospice Awarded an Eversource Foundation Grant for COVID-19 Relief

John F. Kennedy said, “We must use time as a tool, not as a couch.” To make the best use of that tool, Eversource

Foundation announced they would be making over $2 million in donations and grants, beginning April 8th, to nonprofit organizations across its three state service area that are providing COVID-19 related work or services to help support its customers and communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. While Kennedy could not have foreseen the amount of time the pandemic would force us to spend on our couches, he was very aware that we could see time as either a tool we could use or as something easily wasted. The Eversource Foundation has chosen to use this time as a tool to help non-profits continue their work fighting the COVID-19 pandemic by supporting them in the work that they are doing. “As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, the critical services pro-

vided by nonprofits like the Franklin VNA & Hospice are more important than ever,” said Eversource Commu-nity Relations Specialist Catalina Celentano. “We’re committed to supporting all of our customers, neighbors and communities during these difficult and uncertain times.” “We are so grateful to Eversource Energy for choosing us as a recipient of one of their emergency grants for our work protecting our patients and supporting the local health system during this health crisis,” says Krystin Albert, CEO of Franklin VNA & Hospice. They plan to use the funds to help purchase personal protective equipment and compensate staff for the extra time they have been working during the pandemic. Hospitals had to cancel elective surgeries to conserve resources, keep beds open for critically ill patients, and keep otherwise healthy patients from potentially coming into contact with carriers of COVID-19, and people who do receive care at emergency rooms and hospitals are being discharged to home as soon as possible instead of kept in the hospital for the same reason. This caused massive furloughs for hospital staff, primary care offices, and specialty offices. Additional health care provider offices, which were unaffected by the furlough, closed or reduced hours and staff in an effort to protect staff and patients from congregating at the office and infecting each other. Albert states, “This has reinforced the unique role that home health provides as both preventative health for those with chronic illnesses who cannot get to their regular providers, and supportive care after a serious illness or injury requiring emergency treatment or hospitalization. Rather than reducing hours and staff, we knew from the start of the pandemic that we would need to increase our community support to fill this role – and do it in a way that would continue to keep those who are the most vulnerable from becoming sick. The grant from the Eversource Foundation will help us provide our amazing staff with those resources to help prevent infection and keep our patients and staff safe.” This all matches with Eversource's mission, which includes not only reliable energy, but superior customer service. They consider strengthening the communities they serve part of that commitment, and the grants and donations for COVID-19 relief a natural extension of that.

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

1 2 3 4 5 6

Blood

Pressure Clinic

Laconia Senior

Center

10:30am -11:15am

Gone too Soon

1pm—3pm

Foot Care Clinic

Franklin VNA & Hospice

Please Call for Appt.

Individual

Bereavement Sessions

8am-3pm

Blood Pressure

Clinic

Salisbury Senior

Center

11:15am –

12:00pm

7 8 9 10 11 12 13

Walk In Grief

Group

Franklin VNA

& Hospice

2:00pm -

3:30pm

Gone too Soon

1pm—3pm

Foot Care Clinic

Franklin VNA & Hospice

Please Call for Appt.

Individual

Bereavement Sessions

8am-3pm

14 15 16 17 18 19 20

Gone too Soon

1pm—3pm

Foot Care Clinic

Franklin VNA & Hospice

Please Call for Appt.

Individual

Bereavement Sessions

8am-3pm

Blood Pressure

Clinic

Northfield

Community Pines

61 Summer St.

11:00am –

12:00pm

21 22 23 24 25 26 27

Blood

Pressure Clinic

Bessie Rowell

Community

Center

10:30am -11:30am

Gone too Soon

1pm—3pm

Individual

Bereavement Sessions

8am-3pm

28 29 30 Gone too Soon

1pm—3pm

Foot Care Clinic

Franklin VNA & Hospice

Please Call for Appt.

Individual

Bereavement Sessions

8am-3pm

Gone too Soon

Group Grief Sessions

every Tuesday

1pm—3pm

Individual Bereavement Session

every Wednesday

by appointment only 8am—3pm

As of the printing of this

newsletter dates and times are

subject to change due to

COVID-19. Please CALL to verify

all items listed on our calendar.

8 7 1 4 9 5 6 4 1 8 7 9 8 6 1 5 2 9 6 4 7 9 1 8 4 2 5 7

Sudoku

How to play -

Fill in each empty square with a number between 1 - 9. Each line, row and 3 x 3 grid should only have each of the numbers with no numbers repeating in

any row, line or 3 x 3 grid.

Mad Libs requires a partner.

Ask your partner for each type of word to fill in the blank. Then read the story

they created.

Noun:

a person, place or thing

Plural noun:

more than one noun

Verb:

action word

Adjective:

a describing word

June is PTSD Awareness Month PTSD, or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, affects over 8 million people in the US, according to the government, yet for many individuals with this disorder lack of understanding about what PTSD is and how it affects their day-to-day lives can make talking about it difficult and even stressful. In fact, because it can be difficult to talk about, even to loved ones, most people with PTSD don’t seek the help they need even though the treatments have been shown to be successful. The National Center for PTSD notes that PTSD can be caused by any sort of trauma, like sexual assault, war and conflict as a Veteran or civilian, natural disaster, abuse as a child, or serious accidents. Sometimes it can come from more than one of these happening at the same time, or from separate incidents over a person’s lifetime. It can truly affect anyone, through no fault of their own. They estimate that over half of Americans have experienced some type of trauma. If a person has been through a trauma, like the ones listed above, it’s normal to have upsetting memories of the event. People can have trouble sleeping, feel on edge, and it can be difficult to go back to doing, and enjoying, regular activities. If, however, those feelings last longer than a few months or more serious symptoms develop, it could be a sign of PTSD, and speaking to a counselor or other mental health provider can help. Although PTSD is a single term, it actually covers a large number of symptoms. Some people may relive the event; this could be a flashback where the memory seems so real it feels like it’s really happening again, or it could be in nightmares. Sometimes this reliving is triggered by something that reminds the person of the event, like someone who has PTSD from being in a hurricane hearing about a hurricane striking another area or someone who has been in combat hearing fireworks on Independence Day. Sometimes people may avoid people or situations that remind them of the event, like people who were in combat avoiding crowded areas. For some people this can include feeling like they want to avoid treatment for PTSD because it will mean they must face what has happened. These people may also feel more negative thoughts about themselves, the world around them, the event, or even guilt that things hadn’t turned out differently. They may feel more on-edge or irritable, or react to things in a way that is surprising. Like getting furious at small infractions, or abusing drugs or alcohol. They may also feel numb to everything, and not feel happy or connected to people and things like they want to, or used to. Thankfully, therapy has been shown to be very effective in relieving the symptoms of PTSD, or even curing it in some cases, even years after the trauma took place. There are several different types of therapy, so people can find the kind that is a good fit for them. They can include therapy to help people relive the memory in a less traumatic way, medications to help with anxiety or depression, or processing therapy which can show them ways to stop from having unhealthy thoughts about themselves, or the world around them. Even though PTSD is so common, people still hesitate to get treatment. Being far from a place to get treatment, stigma associated with mental illness, and even not being sure what is wrong with them can all stop people from getting the treatment they need. Krystin Albert, CEO of Franklin VNA & Hospice says, “We know that PTSD can affect people of all ages, and walks of life, whether they have been Veterans or not. We hope that through articles like this, patient education for people on service with us, and collaborations with other community organizations, we can encourage people with PTSD to seek help in a way that makes sense to them. It’s another way that we believe in whole-person care, because all our patients are individuals, not numbers. That’s the beauty of our small agency - you’re never a number.”

Key Lime Cheesecake Bars Crust Ingredients:

2 cups pecans 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

2 Tbsp. raw honey 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Pinch of salt

Key Lime Cheesecake Filling Ingredients:

8oz cream cheese, softened 5.3 oz plain greek yogurt

1/4 cup sugar 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1/3 cup key lime juice 1 tsp. key lime zest

2 egg whites

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Line 8x8 glass baking pan with parchment paper (this will help with removal later). Set aside.

Add pecans to a food processor (or blender), chop until finely diced. Add in butter, honey,

cinnamon and 1 pinch of salt. Blend until everything is mixed and the “crust” holds together a

bit.

Spread out mixture evenly in the baking dish. Set aside.

In a medium bowl mix cream cheese, sugar and vanilla extract using a hand mixer. Blend until

smooth and creamy.

Add in greek yogurt, key lime juice, key lime zest and egg whites. Blend until combined - be sure

not to over blend.

Pour cheesecake mixture over pecan crust - smooth out so the cheesecake mixture is even.

Bake 30 - 35 minutes.

Remove from oven, place in refrigerator to cool for 30 minutes.

Remove from baking dish. Cut up bars. Serve and … Enjoy

A HUGE shout out for everyone who donated

PPE products to us! Your generosity means

the world to our employees! Thank You!

Here are just a few of those generous folks!

Hand made masks from the

Women’s Club of Concord

Pizza and Gift Bags from

Visiting Angels of the Lakes Region

PPE Supplies from Eversource

Masks from SoClean

Face Shields from Mills Industries

Understanding Aphasia Helps Us All Communicate Better

June is Aphasia Awareness Month, a time to help spread the word about what aphasia is, who if affects, and how we can best communicate with a person with aphasia, or if we have aphasia.

Aphasia is a language disorder that affects the ability of a person to read or write, or understand and produce speech. Different from a learning disorder that a person is born with, like dyslexia, aphasia is always caused by a brain injury. Most of these injuries are caused by a stroke, but they can be caused by brain tumors, infections, or any traumatic brain injury.

The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association estimates that there are 180,000 new cases of aphasia every year in the US alone, and one out of every 250 people is affected. Aphasia happens when the brain is injured in one or more parts that control speech or language, so the person affected is still as smart as they were before, but now they need to learn to communicate differently. Their hearing isn’t affected, so yelling won’t help, just speak clearly.

Aphasia can cause people to substitute one word for another, like “wishdasher” for “dishwasher” or “chair” for “bed”. It can cause people to have difficulty understanding fast speech, take all speech literally like thinking “it’s raining cats and dogs” means there really are cats and dogs falling from the sky have difficulty with written expression, like being unable to copy a sentence, or substituting incorrect letters or words when writing. It can affect reading as well, so recognizing words or understanding them can become difficult. The damage to the speech and language centers of the brain will be different for each person with aphasia, so the symptoms they display will be different as well.

The American Heart and Stroke Association reminds us that when we are communicating with a person with aphasia we should speak in short, simple sentences. Turn off or remove distractions like televisions and radios, so the person can concentrate on you, but other communication methods like writing, gesturing or using a tablet as a communication tool can help. Be patient, and allow plenty of time to talk and try some different tools to see what works.

For people with aphasia it can take longer to express what they want to say, or the words might come out differently than what they intended and that can be frustrating. Assistive devices, like the ones listed above may help and you may find that having people ask you questions in certain ways, or multiple ways, might work best for you.

“Individualized care is so important for each of our patients, especially so when communication difficulties can make teaching and learning more of a challenge,” says Krystin Albert, CEO of Franklin VNA & Hospice. “Sometimes a patient will be newly diagnosed with aphasia and we can help them learn strategies to deal with it. Other times they may have had aphasia for a while, but they may have new health needs around a totally different diagnosis, like diabetes. We are proud to help patients meet their learning needs, no matter what the situation. That’s one of the ways we provide excellent care, and one of the most rewarding things about being a homecare nurse.”

Servicing the towns of Andover, Belmont, Boscawen, Canterbury, Franklin, Gilford,

Gilmanton, Hill, Laconia, Northfield, Salisbury, Sanbornton, Tilton and Webster!

We are continuing to grow!

Which means we have career opportunities!

Registered Nurse Case Managers

LNAs

To apply go to

FranklinVNA.org

Search by our name

or the position you

are interested in.

It’s that simple!

In-home health care allows you to have a more personal relationship with your patients! It allows for a stronger understanding and ability to meet their needs! You end your work

days with the feeling of accomplishment and pride! Please read on below for the details on our openings for RN Case Managers!

RN Case Managers

· Completes comprehensive assessments, including OASIS items, accurately and timely at specific time-points as defined by regulation and agency policy.

· Develops a plan of care, in collaboration with the patient, family/caregiver and physician orders including frequency and duration of nursing visits, specific care or treatments to be provided, appropriate goals, medications, other disciplines needed and discharge plan.

· Implements and provides nursing care, holistic treatment, and services according to the plan of care and accepted standards of care, including IV site care, drains, vacs, injections, and lots of patient education.

· Communicates changes in patient status, patient issues and concerns and changes in orders to the

Physician and Clinical Leadership according to agency guidelines.

· Must be extremely organized with superior attention to detail and follow-through.

LNA Have experience in caring for Seniors and/or Disabled Adults professionally or

personally. Shine in Reliability and Professionalism.

Enjoy assisting in the holistic needs of others. Possess adaptability and flexibility.

Valid driver's license and car insurance. Comfortable in driving in all weather conditions.

Dementia/Alzheimer's experience a plus. Weekend LNA on-call rotation required.

Active LNA status.

Our Service Area

Proudly

servicing our

community

since

1945

Together

We will get through this!