WHILE the population of the United States has doubled since 1900, it is startling to note that the number of persons more than 65 years of age is seven times greater than it was at the turn of the century. Approximately 25 per cent of those living in the United States today are over 65. Thus, health care has become an ever-increasing problem. Not only are the capacities of many hospitals over taxed, but many elderly people resent being placed in nursing homes. If our older citizens are to be adequately cared for at home, there is a great need for a new type of health careerist known as Home Health Aide.
It is estimated that only one tenth the number of needed Home Health Aides are available to the public. Adventists are thus presented with a golden opportunity not only to follow the ad monition of Ellen G. White that "we have come to a time when every member of the church should take hold of medical missionary work" (Testimonies, vol. 7, p. 62), but to be paid for doing this kind of work. In this way they can devote full time to such service.
Recognizing this great opportunity, the Adventist Nurse Service Agency was founded in New York City to provide the services of Home Health Aides for the care of the elderly and convalescent in their own homes. At present, the activities of this agency largely consist of a 65-hour course for training Home Health Aides, and their placement in response to the public's requests for service.
The school convenes each spring and fall for ten consecutive Sundays from 11:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. To date, approximately one thousand persons have success fully completed the Home Health Aide Course and have been awarded General Conference certificates, as well as the Red Cross Home Nursing Certificates.
Those enrolled are taught elementary nursing procedures along with some of the theories of psychological management of various patient problems. The course includes ten hours of nutrition and some nursing ethics, as well as anatomy and physiology. The problems and care of persons afflicted with the more common physical diseases are considered. Methods that may be employed in the art of giving spiritual encouragement are carefully presented.
Health principles taught those in training are useful for a life time, even if not used for gainful employment. This class prepares our people for the time when "there will be no work done in ministerial lines but medical missionary work" (Counsels on Health, p. 533). Only Seventh-day Adventists are placed for service, although a limited number of non- Adventists are admitted to the training class. Unquestionably, this course has an evangelizing influence, as a very favorable response from a number of those being cared for has indicated.
Advantages to Be Gained
Being a Home Health Aide offers many advantages. It provides access to homes of people on all levels of society, thus giving an opportunity to live one's religion and to direct the conversation in such a way as to invite questions that require Bible answers. It also offers gainful employment with out joining a union and provides income for unskilled workers. Students may work summers as well as part time during the school year to help defray expenses.
It was in 1901 that Sister White wrote: "In every large city there should be corps of organized, well-disciplined workers; not merely one or two, but scores should be set to work. But the perplexing question is yet unsolved, how they will be sustained." —Medical Ministry, pp. 300, 301.
One solution is that discovered in New York City by the Adventist Nurse Service Agency. Workers are being placed all over the metropolitan area, up to Westchester, on Long Island, and in New Jersey and Connecticut. And they are being adequately sustained, for at present, these Adventist aides are collectively grossing between one half and three quarters of a million dollars a year. The seeds of hope and truth are being sown; prejudice is being broken down; doors are being opened to the truth; and the grateful response from the public is most thrilling.
The wife of a physician who is chief of service in a large Catholic hospital called to say, "Your Sally Baker is just wonderful! She handles my mother better than I can. I'm likely to be a convert." An other voice over the telephone testifies, "My doctor tells me that if I can get an Adventist nurse, I should be the happiest lady in New York."
One pleased family remarked, "You said Mrs. Woods is very good; I say she's an angel!"
The daughter of a senile Jewish patient in New Jersey has been reading The Great Controversy and The Desire of Ages.
It is impossible to measure the extent of the influence of these hundreds of dedicated women and men who live their religion day after day in the homes of the poor as well as those of the wealthy, famous, and influential. The fact that more compliments and grateful thanks than com plaints are received attests to the high degree of appreciation New Yorkers have for Seventh-day Adventists. One man remarked, "Why, you have Adventists all over the city." The silent response of the nurse on the other end of the telephone was, "Gideon's band!"
A Patient Witness
Dorothy Linkhorn's story reveals the result of the patient witness of only one of the many dedicated aides whose motivation stems from a profound gratitude to God for His wonderful goodness to her.
Dorothy's life had been turbulent. In addition to suffering from epilepsy, she was declared legally blind. As if this were not enough, a drug addict broke into her home, beat her, and left her for dead. Soon afterward she was placed in the home of an Adventist Home Health Aide, Effje Green.
All was not easy; many stormy times ensued. Dorothy was resentful and suspicious of kindness, thinking her benefactors had ulterior motives. The love, patience, and prayers of the Green family won out, however, for she was converted and baptized into the Adventist faith. Soon afterward she was praising God, who had not only relieved her epilepsy, but had restored her sight!
But this is not the end of the story. Dorothy took the Home Health Aide Course, passed with high grades, and distinguished herself by doing excellent work with very difficult patients. One such occasion was her placement in the home of a cardiac patient. In his frustration, fear, and dis comfort, this Italian seaman was very abusive with his tongue. Somehow Cod helped Dorothy overlook his rough language and endure the tempestuous atmosphere surrounding him. The visiting nurse remarked, "I don't know how you stand this!" His reaction to writing her paycheck was almost unbearable.
For two weeks she patiently endeavored to please him, while encouraging him to watch Faith for Today and listen to the Voice of Prophecy. She succeeded in remaining cheerful, often singing as she worked, only to be met with the repugnant retort, "What do you think this is, the Salvation Army?" Still Dorothy exhibited an attitude of patience and forbearance.
On one occasion Dorothy was relieved on her day off by another Home Health Aide, Mrs. Sylvia Taylor, who was impressed to speak to her patient about spiritual matters. "You know, Mr. Salvatore," she said, "you do not have very much longer to live. Are you ready to meet God?"
"No," came the reply.
"Would you like to pray about it?" she queried.
"Don't know how," he replied.
"Then I shall say the words and you repeat after me," she suggested. With tears, he responded to her efforts to bring him to the Saviour.
When relatives visited him that afternoon he was heard to say, "You don't need to say any prayers over me. She did it!"
Dorothy, upon her return, was pleasantly surprised to note he had tuned in to the Voice of Prophecy himself, with no prompting from her being necessary. That evening they prayed in unison the Lord's Prayer. "Don't ever leave me, Dottie," he said.
The next day his general condition worsened rapidly. He became agitated and disoriented. An ambulance was called, but in his delirium he was heard to say, "Christ died on Calvary. I am a Christian now." He soon became unconscious and died in the hospital the following day.
This is just one of the many incidents that could be related of transformed lives brought about by the influence of the Adventist Nurse Service Agency, which is fast becoming known in many circles as the best agency of its kind in New York City. By far, the great majority of requests come from persons who have been referred by pleased and grateful patients and their families. An ex ample of this is noted in a communication recently received by the agency:
"Dear Mrs. Croft: Thank you for not giving up, for I do not know how I would have managed without Mrs. Thaw. Yesterday morning as I held my father's hand, he died in Mrs. Thaw's loving arms. She attended him to the end as though he were her very own. I am eternally grateful to her and to your wonderful agency."
In spite of the current economic recession, "business" is up 50 per cent in the past year. The words of Ellen G. White are seeing fulfillment, "Amidst the deepening shadows of earth's last great crisis, God's light will shine brightest, and the song of hope and trust will be heard in clearest and loftiest strains." —Education, p. 166.
Jewish Families Reached
Presently, most of the active aides are receiving complimentary subscriptions to These Times and Life and Health to read them selves, before leaving them in the homes of the families they serve. Jewish families receive complimentary subscriptions to Israel ite Heritage. We are also offering the book, Flee the Captor, by Herbert Ford to our Jewish friends. Reading it will tell them of the heroic assistance given by John Weidner, an Adventist in Europe, to Jewish people in their flight to freedom during World War II. The book further helps to establish the Adventists as a compassionate and concerned people. It is planned to follow up the reading of this book with other appropriate literature.
The Acts of the Apostles, page 381, states, "In the closing proclamation of the gospel, . . . God expects His messengers to take particular interest in the Jewish people." Some of them will play a remarkable part in proclaiming the observance of the Ten Commandments in the closing days of history.
The Adventist Nurse Service Agency has prepared a kit containing the Home Health Aide Manual, "A Call to Medical Evangelism," and an outline of "How to Organize an A.N.S.A." Also included are copies of the forms used in operating the New York City agency. Those interested in obtaining this material should send their requests with $10.00 to cover the cost of the material and postage to: The Adventist Nurse Service Agency, 227 West 46th St., New York, New York 10036.
The spectrum of community service need not be confined to the training and placement of Home Health Aides. It is hoped that other services will be added as God's providence seems to indicate. Greater things are in store when God's servants consecrate their all to His service.
In New York City we anticipate that the prediction of Sister White will be fulfilled through the services being offered by the Adventist Nurse Service Agency. "Thou sands in the eleventh hour will see and acknowledge the truth. . . . These conversions to truth will be made with a rapidity that will surprise the church, and God's name alone will be glorified." —Selected Messages, book 2, p. 16.
