Relief effort for displaced nursing home residents underway
Friday, September 9, 2005 -- Craig Anderson
Along with people living in poverty and the chronically ill, nursing home residents in the regions affected by hurricane Katrina have lost their residences and in many cases, all but their immediate possessions.

A relief effort organized by an Atlanta-based senior’s advocacy organization – Second Wind Dreams – is underway to provide shelter, food and clothing for displaced hurricane-area nursing home residents.

“The trauma that many of them have experienced is just unfathomable,” says P.K. Beville, Second Wind Dreams founder. “It’s going to require a long-term effort, the immediate need of the clothing is well and good, but long-term we’re going to need a whole lot of people that are willing to do counseling.”

“Nursing homes are the last places that people think of in times of distress, but they’re the most fragile, many of the residents can’t speak for themselves, they don’t have their social security card, everything has been washed away.”

Second Wind Dreams is assisting Atlanta-area nursing homes who will take on 1500 plus residents from the regions affected by Hurricane Katrina. The affected residents require clothing – most have little else – and dollar donations to aid in their transport and relocation.

A Mississauga-based long-term care provider – RegencyCare – has pledged their support for Second Wind Dreams. RegencyCare, along with staff and residents from the company’s sixteen Ontario homes, are organizing a silent auction and other fundraising initiatives to aid Second Wind Dream’s relocation efforts.

Some of the displaced residents will be housed permanently in Atlanta long-termcare residences, while other seniors are receiving assistance to move with their extended families.

“A lot of the seniors are bottlenecked all over the place, some are receiving triage, but we’ve served about sixty so far. The rest are still coming in, but at this point we’re still largely in the dark,” says Beville.

The displaced seniors require night clothes, underclothing, socks, closed back slippers, slip on shoes, sweats and other day clothes, elastic waist pants, blankets, housedresses, only washable items, and toiletries, as well as tax-deductible cash donations, which can be made to the address listed below or to www.secondwind.org.

Donations will address immediate needs, says Beville, although long term needs – items like clocks and artwork, anything that constitutes home-life - will be considered once a semblance of normalcy is restored.

“We’re currently taking it one day at a time,” she says, “but they will need things that will start making them feel like they can create a little bit of a home. We’re not going to just drop and run.”

Donations can also be mailed to:

P.K. Beville, Ph.D.
Second Wind Dreams
www.secondwind.org
1031 Cambridge Sq, Ste. G
Alpharetta, GA 30004678-624-0500