News & Events
Is Personal Care Right for You?
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- Written by Homeland Center
Are you are getting older each year? Of course – we all are – that is why we celebrate our birthday, right?
Are you feeling older each year? Perhaps recently you realize keeping up with the laundry, the house, and especially the yard work is getting harder to do without lengthy breaks or it takes more and more time to accomplish these tasks. What once took you five or ten minutes to do is now taking an hour or two – or even more.
The question – where and how can you receive help? How can you receive support you need and still live an active and healthy life with as much independence as possible? The answer: Homeland Center. Assistance is available through in-home services or through a facility-based option, such as Personal Care.
Jennifer Murray, Director of Personal Care for Homeland noted, “Personal Care is designed to help with encouraging residents to be as independent as possible, while offering assistance with daily tasks. These tasks include helping with balance and mobility issues, medication assistance, minimizing social isolation and offering assistance with daily tasks that may have become a burden.”
In addition to providing Skilled Care, Dementia Care, Rehabilitation Services, Hospice, HomeHealth and HomeCare, Homeland Center also has a Personal Care unit consisting of 50 spacious furnished or unfurnished studio suites. Homeland offers choices. Quality choices for different needs you may require and the changes aging may bring. Personal Care may be the best option right now if you are not able to take care of yourself like you did a decade ago or begin to feel socially isolated.
Let’s Meet the New Director of Personal Care
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- Written by Homeland Center
A lifelong South Central Pennsylvania resident, Jennifer Murray, currently the Director of Personal Care, began at Homeland a little over a year ago in March of 2016.
Murray has been a nurse for seventeen years. “I received my LPN certification in 1999 and became a Personal Care Home Administrator in 2005.” She also holds certifications as a Medication Trainer, Fire Safety Trainer and as a Certified Marketing Professional.
“I always knew I wanted to be a nurse – since I was a child. I always enjoyed taking care of everyone around me. I have a natural instinct to help those in need.”
Her first job related to nursing or personal care was with the Middletown Home. “I was there for twelve years, serving as Director of Residential Living.” Murray was also charged with the task of handling all of their marketing efforts.
Resident Spotlight: Mary Graves brings joy with flowers and cakes
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- Written by Homeland Center
Mary Graves loves flowers. Her grandmother’s yard was full of flowers, and she always made sure her Harrisburg home was alive with colorful blooms.
“I’ve got roses,” she says. “I’ve got petunias and azaleas. I have so much planted, I don’t know what it is.”
A Homeland resident since earlier this year, Mary and her sister grew up in Reidsville, North Carolina, on the tobacco farm owned by her grandfather. Raised by her grandparents after her mother died, she wasn’t expected to do many chores, but she did learn to milk the cows.
Folksongs bring back memories of Balkan traditions
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- Written by Homeland Center
A bit of Steelton came to Homeland Center on a Wednesday evening, when Balkan folk songs played by the St. Lawrence Tamburitza Orchestra conjured memories for residents who grew up in the ethnic mill town.
The nearby borough of Steelton is one of those Pennsylvania enclaves where immigrants found work in steel mills and mines. Many Homeland residents grew up there, amid the Eastern European traditions that their parents and grandparents brought from the old country.
The Steelton-based St. Lawrence Tamburitza Orchestra keeps alive the tunes and lyrics precious to people from the Balkan countries of Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia, and Slovenia. For their performance, residents filled Homeland’s dining room, and there were smiles all around.
The night’s theme was “love,” said the orchestra’s assistant director, Mark Kresho, who conducted the performance.
Employee Spotlight: CNA Sam Morris brightens up the days of Homeland resident
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- Written by Homeland Center
Sam Morris likes to wear bright socks.
“Yellow, blue,” he says. “The brighter, the better.”
On this day, he is wearing dark socks emblazoned with multicolored stripes in horizontal and vertical patterns. With his bright socks and bright smile, he brings cheer to the workplace as a Homeland Center Certified Nursing Assistant.
Homeland’s corps of skilled, motivated CNAs is an essential element in providing quality care for residents. Through their training and certification, they learn to assist residents with daily tasks such as feeding and bathing, and they support the nursing staff with basic medical duties including taking vital signs.
Morris knew all about the role of CNAs in nursing care because his late mother was a CNA at Homeland for many years.