Shown from left are first row: Joanne Post, CIP Rehab; Charisse O’Konski, CIP Rehab; Kitty Page, Tiffany Court at Kingston; Cecilia Petty, Visiting Angels; Jane Brennan, Life Geisinger; Mariah Buckley, Vision Imaging; Amy Odzana, Residential Home Health; Rachel Dunn, The Meadows; Beth Pantano, Comprehensive medical home care. Second row: Jennifer Mackowski and Kelly Rinehimer, Bureau of Blind and Visual Services; Kyra Herman, Birchwood Rehab; Laurie Kulak, Compassus Hospice; Mike Wascavage, Home Instead; Chari Melnick, Hospice of the Sacred Heart; Deb Miller, Carebuilder@Home; Sherry Sabecky, Allied Meade St Residence; Theresa Croker, Comprehensive Medical Home Care; Jay Lefkowitz, Harrold’s Pharmacy.
Submitted photo
Event will be Sept. 24 at Mohegan PA
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As the third annual Caring Hearts Senior Resource Fair approaches on Sept. 24, area native Karen Miller wants people to know how helpful her family found last year’s event.
“The turning point was that fair,” Miller said, explaining it changed her elderly mother’s life for the better.
Ever since her father died, almost two years ago, Miller said she and her brother had taken turns flying from their respective homes in Florida and Colorado back to Northeastern Pennsylvania so their mother wouldn’t be alone in her house in Bear Creek.
“When my father was alive they were all right,” Miller said of her parents. “It was like together they made one. But when one of them was gone, we realized her dementia was worse than we had thought.”
Last September Miller was visiting her mother and suggested they attend the fair, just as an outing, thinking they would leave after saying hello to a pair of husband-and-wife presenters she knew.
But her mother was feeling energized and wanted to visit every booth.
“I was so impressed with the way it was set up,” Miller said. “It was like trick or treating for adults, the way they filled up a goodie bag with brochures and little gadgets.”
“My mother saw all the things that were available (including information about assisted living) and it started a conversation,” Miller said.
The happy ending is that Miller’s mom, now 82, decided she wanted the companionship and group activities of living with other seniors, and Miller’s brother found an ideal assisted living facility for her near his home in Colorado.
“I’m visiting her now,” Miller said on Tuesday during a telephone interview. “It’s like a vacation. Isn’t that right, Mom?”
Miller urges other seniors and/or caregivers to attend this year’s fair, which is set for 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Mohegan PA convention center.
“We try to make it fun, engaging and interactive,” committee member Beth Pantano said, noting that a DJ will give the fair a festive atmosphere and if you stop at each vendor you will be eligible to win a grand prize of an overnight stay at Mohegan PA and dinner for two at Rustic Kitchen plus $100 cash.
But even if you don’t win the grand prize, you can expect to come away knowing about services that are available.
“We’re making sure our seniors have all the information,” Pantano said. “They might not need my service today, they might not ever need it but they might meet someone who does.”
Some of the services about which seniors and their caregivers can learn include home health care, assisted living, hospice care, elder law, veterans benefits, insurance information and more.
“I’ve been a nurse, a hospital nurse, and now I’m in home health care,” Pantano said. “I come from a place —my father was an educator — and ‘education, education, education’ was always drilled into me.”
When she lost her father to multiple myelomo, Pantano said, he “died in the emergency room. Had I known then what I know now, his passing would have been different.”
Caring Hearts is a non-profit networking group comprised of health professionals whose mission is to provide education through community engagement and volunteerism. You may find members hosting bingo, trivia, or ice cream socials at local active adult center and independent living facilities, holiday caroling in area nursing facilities and giving back to the communities supporting local non-profit organizations.
The group is led by Beth Pantano, Community Liaison, Comprehensive Medical Home Care, Jane Brennan, Outreach Liaison, LIFE Geisinger, and Angela Lowe, Director of Marketing/Business Development, Century Healthcare.