St. Leonard is a not-for-profit, senior living community and is directed, governed and motivated by Christian principles and the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services. St. Leonard is a wonderful community of like-minded people, where the residents and staff support one another and strive to lift each other up on a daily basis. The St. Leonard mission and philosophy statements are based around this culture of caring and compassion. The mission statement of St Leonard reveals this by stating that “responding to the Gospel of Jesus, St. Leonard assists seniors of all faiths to achieve their highest level of independence.” In addition, the values and philosophy statement declares that we are committed to providing quality of life and care to those we serve and to our employees as expressed in the philosophy of Franciscan Services Corporation promoting the Franciscan values of Reverence, Service and Stewardship.
The purpose of the “Vital Nation Community Concept is to reverse the alarming trend of health and wellness declines in America by taking proactive measures for better holistic wellness.” As we begin to employ this philosophy, we find that it also supports St. Leonard’s mission and values of assisting seniors to achieve their highest level of independence. According to Bill Witte of Vital Nation, “the Vital life Community is an affinity community (purpose-driven) composed of residents sharing as their primary reason for being, the maximization of their potential of life, through the mutuality of highly socialized community living which focuses on the nurturing of the individual and collective “mind, body and spirit.” "The proposal is-“that only if we are fully human and fully alive-can we make the transformation from “humans-doing” and become “humans-being”” (Witte, 2010).
The first phase of the program is to find out where we are in the development of the strategy, goals and objectives for becoming the Healthiest Community in America. Within this blog, we will share the stories of St. Leonard’s residents and employees in brief case studies that will give us opportunities to learn from each other and to appreciate and honor everyone’s journey toward becoming “humans-being”
Case Study 1
Social and Emotional Wellness Fun and Function Model
Jean Sykes has led an incredible life of adventure with a consistent pursuit of her dreams and goals at the level of where fairy tales begin. Upon arriving in New York City at the age of 20 in February of 1943 to pursue a life on Broadway, this young woman had just finished two months at the Kitty Hawk Room at the Biltmore Hotel in Dayton, Ohio. She had clutched in her possession a letter from the orchestra leader to give upon arrival to the Dorsey Brothers Publishing company. The publishing company sent her to audition down the hall where she auditioned again at nine o’clock and by eleven, that evening she was hired to sing and perform comedy at the Eighteen Club on 52nd street. Jean’s style was Broadway tunes and popular songs of the time and her stage name was Jean March. She met and preformed with stage giants such as Jackie Gleason and Milton Berle and learned the finer points of comedy and cabaret improv.
Jean Sykes now resides at St. Leonard where the theme is to Live now and Age Later and Jean is a wonderful example of expanding her social and emotional wellness into the fun and function model of her design. Jean surrounds herself with music professionals and performs for the residents and staff at St. Leonard regularly. She has connected with Jim Smith a well-known guitarist who is a professor at Central State and teaches classes at the University of Cincinnati. Together they formed a group known as the Jim Leslie Trio and through their performances, her audience calls her timeless as she performs with her passion and talents. She is very thankful for Jim Smith as he helps to prepare the singer persona to organize and prepare the stage presence. Jean has led an extraordinary life and now she continues to pursuit her dreams and goals and although they are different than when she was twenty they support her social and emotional wellness in the manner that she desires and that gives her fun and function.
Case Study 2
Social and Emotional Wellness Fun and Function Model
Tina Looney learned the art of friendship at the age of ten years old from a church youth group. This preteen group grew up and did everything together and that included the usual teenage trials and tribulation. The lessons learned in keeping the group together and united was that to get past obstacles one needs to avoid shame and to be non-judgmental. In those early formative years, Tina learned that people are “stronger as two people rather than one.”
Today, Tina’s office has a steady stream of people coming and going most of which is work related, however, some are residents, and employees who just wish to stop and chat. Tina has a wonderful way of validating people’s feelings and helping people find their true self before they are lost in the roles of work, parenting and school. According to Tina, building friendships require focusing on the positive to help people feel lighter about the difficulties of life. Striving to light the way for others in their pursuit of social and emotional wellness comes with a free price tag as long as you “pay it forward” and “be sure to be there for someone else” (Tina Looney).
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