Helping seniors

When people move into nursing homes, it is the goal of one local nonprofit group to make sure they are comfortable.

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"That's what we do," said Helen McVicker, board president, CEO and founder of When Help Can't Wait, a Martinez-based group that provides comfort and convenience items to seniors in area nursing homes.

"We call ourselves a surrogate family," McVicker said. "We take them the comfort items. We take the outside to them."

The organization held an open house Aug. 27 at its newly renovated offices at 3822 Commercial Court, across from the Martinez Post Office.

The group moved in the spring from Walton Way Extension. The advantage is that it includes plenty of storage space for fundraising yard sale items, space to store and prepare welcome boxes for new nursing home residents and a room to store donations.

McVicker said the group serves residents in about 20 area nursing homes including ones in Washington, Ga., Thomson, and Oconee County, where volunteers constructed an outdoor pavilion for residents.

After her own retirement, McVicker worked with the elderly through a federal ombudsman program. In that role, McVicker visited nursing and rest home residents to enhance their quality of life by hearing and resolving complaints and advocating for their rights.

That's when McVicker said she saw needs. Homes provide for basic needs of residents -- food, bathing, medical care -- but not comfort items, including entertainment, personal hygiene and toiletries and clothing. As a volunteer with a state and federally-funded program, McVicker said she couldn't give residents anything.

After calling seven area agencies that help the elderly, McVicker found none could help once someone went into a nursing home. So she started When Help Can't Wait.

"We have no money coming from anybody, no grants, ever," McVicker said. "Donations and fundraising. Individuals and small businesses."

The group holds quarterly yard sales, and regular gold parties, where participants are paid for turning in gold items.

With donated items and funds, volunteers make up and deliver the welcome boxes, which usually include lotion, bath powder , pocket tissues and other goodies, McVicker said.

"They love it. It makes them feel special," McVicker said. "They are moving into a new place. They are scared. ... This just lets them know that somebody cares."

The group tries to ensure there is a "Friendly Visitor" in each nursing home. That designation is for a person who visits with residents, particularly those without family.

Volunteers often include Air Force airmen stationed at Fort Gordon on holidays like Mother's Day, Father's Day and Halloween. The group's traveling Clothes Closet gives residents a chance to pick out a few pieces of clothing.

Tea parties, complete with hats and sweet treats, are always popular, McVicker said.

Susan McArthur, the group's executive director, also is a BeautiControl director, and organizes spa days, which often feature hand and foot massages.

McArthur said nearly three years ago, she headed into a nursing home for her first spa day and didn't know what to expect. Several of the clients ended up in happy tears, she said.

"By the time I got finished, I was the one that was in major tears," McArthur said. "It felt so good to make them feel so wanted for such a little bit of time."

McVicker said games get residents moving in their wheelchairs, while music CDs, books and puzzle books provide some entertainment. But the most requested items are portable CD players.

"Do you know what that means to a blind man in a room with no music and can't see a TV?" McVicker said. "We take him a CD player and we take him CDs. Then he can listen to music and he's not bored out of his tree."

Several ladies volunteer to knit lap robes and shawls, while an area garden club donated bird houses as projects for the men.

"The men put them together and paint them or whatever," McVicker said. "The men, they kind of get neglected. So we try to make sure that doesn't happen."

McArthur said the group is always in need of volunteers and donations. Popular items include individually packaged toothbrushes, nail polish, lotions and bath products, travel-sized toiletries, Mardi Gras beads, socks, and anything else residents can use.

The office is open from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday. For information, call (706) 729-8991 or visit www.whenhelpcantwait.com.