The "Manhattan Optimist Club Bulletin" #34: 5-24-23
The meeting was called to order by President, Thad Hall and the club said the flag salute together. Thad welcomed our speaker, Christine Nolte.
Member Spotlight: Bruce Spellman (given by Kelly Karl)
Bruce grew up in western Pennsylvania near Pittsburgh but often came to Kansas in the summers to stay with his grandparents on their farm near Gardner.
He went to Clark College in Missouri for one year then transferred to K-State. He graduated in 1973 with a degree in Agriculture. For the first seven years of his career, he worked for the Kansas Dairy Herd Improvement Association testing milk samples. For a short time, he was an assistant manager at Wendy’s. In 1983, he joined Kansas Lumber Home Stores, later becoming Mead Lumber, and worked there for 36 years, selling doors, windows, paint, and other home improvement materials. He retired in 2019.
Bruce is married to Julie, who has Multiple Sclerosis and is in the nursing home at Wamego. They have two boys, Jason, who lives in rural Paxico with his wife and three children, two boys and a girl, and a son Joe lives in Eudora near Lawrence and has two children, both girls. So Bruce has five grandchildren. One grandson graduated from Fort Hays this month and another grandson graduated from high school in Wabaunsee.
Bruce likes to play golf and he works out at the fitness center at Wildcat Creek. As far as Optimist activities go, Bruce likes to work at the Christmas Tree lot and is heavily involved with the Spaghetti Dinner, taking charge of the dishwashing. Thank you for your service to the Optimists Club Bruce.
There are a lot of myths and misconceptions about the services provided at GSHH. They are the only local non-profit provider of hospice, palliative home health and home care services. GSHH began caring for clients and families at home in August of 1978 - they will celebrate 45 years of caring for the community this year.
GSHH serves Manhattan and a 45 mile surrounding radius with different levels of in-home care, but there is no service area limit for getting care at the Good Shepherd Hospice House.
The home care program is care that helps people live safely and independently at your own home and includes bathing, laundry, meals, transportation, etc. This level of care is self-referred and self-directed meaning that no doctor referral is required and that you decide what you need and how often you need it.
Palliative Home Health care has a comfort focus; under palliative care, you can still be seeking curative measures (radiation, chemo, etc.). Care received may include dealing with side effects of treatments etc. This does require a doctor’s order.
The Hospice Program includes at home care or at the hospice house. This is the only non-profit in-patient hospice house in this county and seven surrounding counties.
Who is eligible? Hospice must be ordered by physician. The doctor must estimate that patient is in the last 6 months of life.
Who provides the care? Nurses, nurse’s aides, social services, chaplain, volunteers, etc.
Who pays? Hospice was designed by Medicare. Hospice is paid by Medicare and Medicaid at 100%. Almost all commercial policies also cover hospice care. Good Shepherd has charitable care for those who need it and are not insured or are underinsured.
What does terminally ill really mean? Most people think of hospice as last couple days or weeks, NOT six months. In fact, hospice care can last longer than 6 months if the patient is declining slower than anticipated. Hospice is not for the last couple of days: it is for the whole last chapter.
Hospice care is not just for cancer. Many patients have respiratory diseases (COPD, etc.), dementia, Parkinson’s disease, circulatory issues (heart disease), etc.
Where:
Hospice care can be at home, in assisted living, while living with a family member, or hospice house. It goes wherever you need it. Care can start in one location and then change when the patient moves.
Myths and misconceptions:
What they hear BEFORE hospice care begins:
“Hospice is just for the last days of life.”
“Hospice is really just giving up.”
“Once you go on hospice, they stop all medications and treatment, you are really just waiting to die.”
“My doctor hasn’t said anything about hospice, so we’re not there yet.”
“He’s still eating and drinking and able to get out of bed, so we’ll call you later when he gets bad.”
What the year AFTER care ends:
“We wish we had called you sooner”.
The goal is to provide individualized treatment to meet the goals of the patient for the end of their life. It is easier to accomplish this goal if they are brought into the process sooner rather than waiting until the last few days.
Hospice offers a bereavement program (13 months) for their survivors, mostly via mail. Weekly support groups (open to everyone) are held on Wednesdays. Coping with the Holidays support groups, etc. are also provided.
Average length of stay at hospice care: about 75% use the program for 30 days or less.
Graduations: occasionally (3-5 times per year), people improve enough to leave the hospice care.
Are there always beds available? Usually yes. They have 12 beds and they have been full, but not for more than 24 hours.
Are there private, for profit competitors. Yes.
They have a wonderful volunteer team. They have 80-90 volunteers. They visit people in their homes, drive people to appointments, bake goods at the hospice house, etc.
Thank you Christine for the wonderful program!
Announcements:
Bruce Bidwell gave T-ball update. There are three open dates that still need umpires: June 1, June 22, and June 29.
Bill Wisdom gave an update on the Bill Snyder Half Marathon that is this Saturday, May 27 from 6:30-10:30 AM: our locations are on campus. We’ll gather at McCain parking lot (corner of Manhattan Avenue and Anderson) at 6:15 for coffee, donuts, safety vests and instructions. The weather should be beautiful.
Mike Fincham made good on his promise to give a Harley Davidson motorcycle to one of the people who helped with weed removal at Optimist Park. The names of all weed pulling volunteers were put in a bag and Jerry Banaka was the lucky winner of a brand new 1968 (miniature) Harley Davidson.
Mike Fincham also announced that on Friday June 16th, from 5:30-8:30 PM our club will hand out water and Optimist brochures and talk to people about our club at the Manhattan Juneteenth celebration.
Thad mentioned that we will try a Meeting Mix-up at the June 28th meeting where members will have the opportunity to get to know new people.
The Just Tri It (kids marathon) is on August 12; sign-up sheets coming soon.
Our club will be hosting the Kansas District Optimist Meeting: August 19-20. Tom Hintz is organizing this: more information will be coming in the next few weeks.
Thad Hall reminded us that a $100 gift card will be awarded to the member that brings in the most new members by Sept 30.
Thoughts and Prayers go out to long time member, Tom Holder, who passed away on Saturday May 20. Visitation Wed May 24 6-7:30 PM at Yorgensen-Meloan-Londeen Funeral Home. A Celebration of Life Service will be held on Thursday May 25 10 AM at the Westview Community Church.
Meeting Schedule:
Next week’s meeting: Wed, May 31 at 7 AM: membership meeting.
June Schedule:
6/7/23: 7 AM: Mel Hunt, The Serengeti in Motion
6/14/23: noon; Flag Day at the Park
6/21/23: 7 AM; Dr. Robert Smith, Ft. Riley Museums
6/28/23: noon; Asia Sampson, Opioid Abuse
Meeting adjourned with the Optimist Creed.