Upcoming Nightlight: VISITING NURSE SERVICE OF NEW YORK BENEFIT CELEBRATES 117 YEARS OF CARING FOR CITY’S MOTHERS, CHILDREN AND FAMILIES

Over a century since public health pioneer Lillian Wald first provided charitable care for a mother and her baby on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the organization that she founded, the Visiting Nurse Service of New York (VNSNY), will once again celebrate Wald’s work and the work of the thousands of nurses and other dedicated VNSNY workers who have followed in her caring footsteps through today.  Whom You Know is pleased to inaugurate our coverage of the Visiting Nurse Service of New York with this benefit.

The Visiting Nurse Service of New York annual benefit will be held on November 11, 2010 at The Waldorf=Astoria Hotel.  The theme, “Investing in Children, Strengthening Families” will honor a remarkable year for our programs focused on NYC’s children and families.

VNSNY’s Children and Family Services (CFS) division is composed of seven pediatric programs that serve 10,000 children and families annually, making it one of the largest and most innovative providers of home and community-based services to children and families in the New York metropolitan area and in the U.S.  VNSNY’s pediatric programs provide care to children with complex medical conditions who require short-term, professional and paraprofessional services, as well as evidence-based care management and preventive services and programs.

Among some of the major program developments over the last year:

• VNSNY’s Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP) program, in partnership with the NYC Department of Health, is an evidence-based community health program. VNSNY’s NFP program is the largest of its kind in the nation and enjoys outstanding support to develop additional services that support nursing, mental-health, and support services to high-risk, first-time mothers and their infants. The City of New York has made the NFP a mainstay in its effort to reduce health disparities, improve maternal and infant health outcomes and improve socio-economic outcomes.
• The Pediatric Diabetes Care Management Program provides care management services to adolescents with Type 1 diabetes. Targeting the Bronx and Manhattan, the program focuses on diabetes education, self-management, and behavior modification. The program uses telehealth-like technology to input, collect, analyze and share treatment data with clients, families and medical providers to manage the child’s diabetes. The program’s goal is to reduce hospitalizations,  reduce high blood-sugar levels and improve on targeted psycho-social indicators.

·     The Pediatric Palliative Care Program focuses on children with life-threatening and life-limiting illnesses.  VNSNY’s program, currently operating in Brooklyn, emulates evidence-based best practices to deliver a comprehensive palliative care service, including: pain and symptom management; reduction of hospitalizations/ER utilization; holistic care to the patient's family; and patient and family empowerment around sensitive medical and social issues centered on the child’s illness.  Service components include nursing expertise, medical care, social work, spiritual and bereavement counseling, in addition to case management and care co-ordination. The key goal is to manage a child’s pain and symptoms, and provide support to family members while allowing the patient to pursue curative treatments.

In 1893, the Lower East Side of Manhattan had the densest population in the world with 1,000 people per acre. Most of the residents were impoverished immigrants who had come to America from Europe with little more than their dreams. They had settled on the Lower East Side of Manhattan with others who shared their cultural backgrounds - people who spoke the same languages, ate the same foods. Many of the immigrants lived in tenements and worked in gruesome sweatshops where the hours were long, the work hard, and the wages pitiful. Sickness was rampant. Because many of the sick could not afford to leave their jobs or their families in order to be hospitalized, 90% of the sick lived at home.

Down on Henry Street, Lillian Wald, a New York Hospital nursing graduate, was teaching a course to immigrant women on home care and hygiene. One morning a little girl - the daughter of one of Wald's students - came into the classroom, weeping. 

"My mother is sick," she said.

Lillian Wald followed the child back to her family's cramped tenement apartment. The girl's young mother lay in a dirty bed soaked with blood. She had been hemorrhaging since giving birth two days earlier.

Wald sprang into action. She ministered care to the woman, cleaned up her bed and room, and comforted the family. The family was extremely poor. The woman's husband, severely disabled, made his livelihood begging on street corners. The family was so grateful to Lillian Wald that when she turned to go, they kissed her hands.  This event changed Lillian Wald’s life and eventually gave birth to the Visiting Nurse Service of New York.

The annual benefit is one of several funding sources that allow Wald’s work to flourish in yet a third century.  This year’s event will honor Mark Wagar, President & CEO, Empire BlueCross BlueShield, and VNSNY Board Member Attallah Kappas, MD, Sherman Fairchild Professor and Physician-in-Chief Emeritus, The Rockefeller University, with the Lillian D. Wald Award.  The award, named after the public health pioneer and founder of VNSNY, is presented each year in recognition of those who have made a significant contribution to the health and welfare of others. 

The event will raise funds for the VNSNY Children and Family Services programs, which provide home- and community-based care to almost 10,000 of New York City’s most vulnerable and needy children and their families.  Every donation improves our ability to reach out and help families cope with the impact of acute and chronic conditions, medically fragile children, children with developmental issues or special needs, and high-risk families.

Visiting Nurse Service of New York, the largest certified not-for-profit home health care organization in the nation, has more than a century of experience in serving the health care needs of New York City’s diverse population. Today, the agency has more than 30,000 patients in its care on any given day, ranging from newborn infants to our eldest seniors.  In 2009, VNSNY provided nearly $24 million in charitable care and community services, including direct care for thousands of uninsured and underinsured New Yorkers who had nowhere else to turn.

The evening begins with a cocktail reception at 6:30 PM, followed by dinner and dancing at 7:30 PM. Tickets for this black tie event start at $1,000, and are available through the VNSNY Development Department at (212)-609-1565.