By Rusty Nixon Correspondent
PLYMOUTH – There are a lot of people talking about staying in their homes, and thousands of home care agencies would like people talking about a special way of staying in their homes.
Saint Joseph VNA Home Care, the National Association for Home Care and Hospice and Plymouth Mayor Mark Senter have combined to help draw attention to health care services provided in the home during National Home Health Care Month. Senter issued a proclamation Thursday in the Plymouth Common Council Chambers declaring November Natio-nal Home Care Month in the city.

“I was asked to issue a proclamation and I was happy to do so,” said Senter. “Anytime we can put focus on an issue or organization that’s helping people, that’s important to the city.”
“It’s a challenge to patients and a challenge to nursing. Everybody wants to stay independent in their homes as long as they can rather than move to some health care facility,” said Coleen Malone the Branch Manager of Saint Joseph VNA Home Care in Plymouth. “More people rely on that than any other home care option and we try to teach them how to care for themselves. It’s been proven that people do better in that setting than in a health care facility.”
The option is a time-tested one as well. Visiting nurses and Saint Joseph VNA Home Health Care in particular have been in operation in the area for over 100 years. It’s not without its challenges.
“There’s a combination of challenges; some is staffing,” said Jane Bolding, executive director of Saint Joseph VNA Home Care. “We have to find people who welcome all the different types of challenges they may face in many different settings – having anything thrown at them on a given day. We hope all this will begin to educate people on this option because with all the current debate on health care it appears that home care is going to become the setting of choice in the future.”