Donna

Donna is a hoarder. When you step into her house, there's just a narrow corridor for you to follow to reach the other rooms of the house. The halls have stacks to the ceilings. Every horizonal space has mountains of papers, clothes, and other possessions. All the blinds and curtains are tightly shut.

For her home visit with Paula, our Client Services Coordinator, Donna cleared a space in her living room. No one could sit on the couch or the chairs - they were piled high - but at least there was room so more than one person could stand and talk.

Donna is suspicious of nearly everyone. She will let you know who she feels has betrayed her or is up to no good. The list includes her members of her family, her neighbors, churches, a variety of social service organizations, the City of Issaquah, the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services - in short, just about anyone who we might try to enlist to help her.

So far, though, she trusts Faith in Action. She uses our on-call transportation services to see the one medical provider she also trusts. Margie, our Volunteer Coordinator, selects her drivers with care. Some might be put off by Donna's strong negative opinions - Margie does her best to find Donna drivers who are experienced, easy-going, and non-judgmental.

With the many reality TV shows about hoarding (A&E 's "Hoarders"; TLC 's " Hoarding: Buried Alive "; and even "Clean House", where some folks are more than merely messy) you might think that Donna would benefit from a crew of Faith in Action volunteers coming in and throwing away all the things she has stacked up in her house. But experts warn that without psychological therapy to go alongside the "Clean Sweep", the loss of the items is highly traumatic to the hoarder. Donna herself reported that "some church ladies" one time came in to help her deal with her things, but that they threw away things that she wanted or hid things that she needed to know where they were.

I hope that our Faith in Action volunteers can continue to build trust with Donna. Maybe one day we can then refer her to help that she feels she can accept, and her home can be a place of light and air once more.

For more information, see: Faith in Action - Supporting Senior Independence

Nancy

Nancy has lived in the home her parents built, south of Issaquah, for most of her lifetime. She lost her eyesight and mobility to diabetes. Her Faith in Action volunteer helps her with visual tasks like reading her mail, and helping her select outfits so her clothes will match. She lives in relative isolation, but being in her home, where she feels comfortable and secure, is important to her.

When I went to visit Nancy to discuss her property as a possible yard work project for a youth group, I noticed that the stairs to her front door were rotting and rickety. Faith in Action staff were looking for resources for Nancy to get them repaired, when Sue Healey, associated with the Bellevue Breakfast Rotary Club, approached Faith in Action, looking for a service project. Nancy's home seemed to be a perfect fit.

Sue, with her Rotary club member husband Ron Healey, an architect, came to Nancy's home and reviewed the project with her. Ron's expertise was invaluable: he designed a replacement exterior staircase and got it through permitting with King County. Sue worked with the Issaquah Home Depot to get a discount on the lumber and materials.

On Saturday, May 22, over 30 members of the Bellevue Breakfast Rotary Club and their families came to Nancy's house. They demolished and rebuilt the stairs at the entrance of the house. They pressure-washed her walkways, porch and wheelchair ramp, all of which were slippery with dirt, moss, and slime. They pruned back her trees and bushes, weeded her flowerbeds, and pulled out blackberry vines. Piles of junk were hauled away, along with the yard waste and demolition debris.

The Bellevue Breakfast Rotary Club generously paid for all the materials (with help from Home Depot), the permit, equipment rentals, and dumping fees. The Rotarians gave up most of a Saturday, working in the often-pouring rain and cold -- it was only in the mid-40s! -- to help a disabled person have a safer, healthier, and more pleasant living environment.

On Nancy's behalf, Faith in Action would like to express our profound gratitude to the Bellevue Breakfast Rotary Club. Their generosity, expertise and time is greatly appreciated.

For more information, see: Faith in Action - Supporting Senior Independence 

Phil

Phil had friends who had received services from Faith in Action, and because he was aware of how the agency's volunteers had helped, he had made a donation from time to time to the agency.

He didn't think he'd become a client himself until he had a diagnosis of kidney failure. Now, he needed transportation to the NW Kidney Center's facility at Snoqualmie Valley Hospital three times a week for dialysis. He started by asking his friends for rides, but it quickly became too much of a burden for them.

One of Faith in Action's dedicated volunteers, Cindy, had been driving a client for dialysis three times a week for many years, but the client died. Margie, Faith in Action's Volunteer Coordinator, asked if she was ready to take on a new client. She said yes.

Phil is now getting a ride, three days a week, from Cindy. Since the dialysis takes 6 hours, Cindy does not stay to take him back. Instead, he rides back home on Metro Transit's ACCESS bus. His experience using ACCESS shows the problems with this service for our clients - some times it takes the bus three hours to make what is in a private car, a 20 minute ride.

Faith in Action would like to be able to provide him with dedicated transportation home, too, but volunteers like Cindy, who are willing to drive so frequently and regularly, are rare. And he does have transportation back, through ACCESS - just not transportation that is timely.

Our goal at Faith in Action is to ensure that every client, every caller, gets the help that he or she needs. We are striving to find volunteers for people like Phil - so he has a ride not just to dialysis, but home again, to promote his health, and give him a better quality of life.

For more information, see: Faith in Action - Supporting Senior Independence 

Robert and Shirley

Robert and Shirley are in their 80s. Robert has dementia, and Shirley is his chief caregiver. Both have a number of on-going medical concerns. Faith in Action provides the couple with rides to their medical appointments. Because of Robert's condition, they always ride together, whether the appointment is for Robert or for Shirley. Robert understands that he needs to be with Shirley to be safe, but this also means that he gets quite anxious if she's in the doctor's exam room without him. When Faith in Action volunteers give the couple rides, they know they need to remain with Robert in the waiting room and reassure him that his wife will be returning soon. Because their situation requires extra care, our volunteer coordinator, Margie, does her best to assign our more experienced volunteers to drive the couple. Staff is concerned not just about Robert's continued decline, but also the strain on Shirley as she ages and takes care of him. While no volunteer is solely assigned to them, their regular drivers have come to know them quite well, and we rely on their monthly reports to do our best to monitor their situation. Robert and Shirley have been clients with Faith in Action for six years. In this time, Faith in Action volunteers have spent more than 530 hours driving the couple 6112 miles to medical appointments. For more information, see: Faith in Action - Supporting Senior Independence