Local nursing home highlights community between residents, staff

May 19—A local living community celebrated National Skilled Nursing Care Week with food and fun on Friday.

Residents and staff of the Benedictine Living Community-St. Joseph came together for many activities, including a meal provided by the staff, root beer floats and dancing to live music. The live performers sang songs from classic musicians such as Johnny Cash and John Denver.

National Skilled Nursing Care Week was first celebrated in 1967. The week celebrates and recognizes the importance of nursing homes in the care they provide to those that they serve.

Jenni Barton is one of the many staff members at the Benedictine Living Community. She, along with her coworkers, recognizes that the staff and residents coming together in this way is greatly beneficial to the entire morale of the facility.

"It just builds a lot of human interaction and it helps with their health and their well-being," Barton said. "It can also strengthen bonds and make the human relationship really strong. So spending that time with our residents and our staff together, communing, having a meal, enjoying activities and things like that, just really boosts morale within the staff and within the residents."

The Benedictine Living Community is a faith-based community for seniors that provides care on a number of different fronts, including for independent living and assisted living. In doing so, they also provide short- and long-term skilled nursing.

The center runs on four core values each day, which are respect, justice, stewardship and hospitality.

This week, communitywide crafts were made that highlighted the core values. One had the values surrounded by the names of residents, and another had a fingerprint from each person connected together.

Barton said these are just some examples of how tightly knit the group is through friendship.

"It connects us together, with the staff and the residents alike. Just, it makes us a good community and strengthens those bonds," Barton said.

This year's theme for National Skilled Nursing Care Week was "Cultivating Kindness." For Barton, the impact those they serve has on her life is very large.

"You make connections and you sometimes feel like they're your family," Barton said. "We feel that quite a bit here. They're just wonderful."

Riley Funk can be reached at riley.funk@newspressnow.com.

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