[Music]
[In Time of Need]
[Aerial view of city housing]
[Twin Towers]
[Railway transportation]
[Aerial view of a cloverleaf interchange]
[Guest appearance by: Kitty Carlisle Hart]
[Kitty Carlisle Hart:] New York.
There's no other city like it in the world.
It's a city of contrasts and endless variety,
embracing all races, all cultures,
all creeds on the streets and in the canyons of 1,000
different neighborhoods.
A city of sound and movement, New York
is an incredible mix of people, of promise, and problems.
[City traffic]
You know too often in our city, we've
become so caught up in the daily rush of living
that we are never really aware of all
those thousands of people who touch our lives each day.
New York can be a lonely place when you're old or handicapped,
when you're sick or alone, and unable to reach out for help.
And as life grows more impersonal and complex,
our need for a person to person help
becomes even more compelling.
We need to be tended when we're ill,
to be comforted when we're alone, to be helped
when we can't help ourselves.
Sometimes what we need most is to reach out and touch someone.
But no matter how large or complex the city may be,
there are always some very special people
willing to devote their skills to giving that kind of help.
People like the Visiting Nurse who
brings comfort and health and caring to every New York home.
[Music]
[Narrator:] Home to a New Yorker can
be an apartment in the South Bronx, the pad in the village,
a brownstone in Gramercy Park, a row house in Queens,
or a single room in an Old West Side hotel.
The Visiting Nurse is familiar with every section of the city.
It is here that you'll find her helping people cope
with illness and the problems of daily life, teaching people
how to live with their handicaps in order to survive reaching
out into every neighborhood.
[Train rumbling over tracks]
Nursing, counseling, helping the new mother, the poor,
the disabled, the elderly,
[Rotary phone dialing] --the drug addicted.
The Visiting Nurse service is the largest nonprofit public
health nursing agency in America.
[Nurse Makensy:] Good morning, this is Miss Makensy
with the Visiting Nurse Service.
How are you?
[Narrator:] It's a multi-service agency
[Nurse talking on phone]
providing a wide range of vitally
needed, comprehensive care.
But the problems are providing home health care are mounting.
In New York, as well as throughout the United States,
the population is increasing.
We are living longer, and we are becoming
more aware of people's needs.
And no one is more concerned with this problem
than the Executive Director,
of Visiting Nurse Service of New York,
Mrs. Eva M. Reese.
[Mrs. Reese:] We're seeing in New York
City the same kinds of problems that I think
exist all across the country.
Perhaps we see more of them because we're a larger city,
and ours is a large agency.
But unless home health services across the country
develop a range of services that can really
be meaningful to people in getting their health needs
met outside of institutions, the whole country
is going to be in very serious trouble.
[Narrator:] Hospitals throughout America
know the problems of their communities,
and New York has 130 community hospitals.
One of these is Columbia Presbyterian
located in the Washington Heights section of New York City,
where last year their Vanderbilt Clinic,
had over 400,000 outpatient visits.
[Dr. Joseph Snyder:] This community around us of some 300,000 people,
in the last few years, the physician population
has dropped from over 200 physicians down
to less than 50 physicians.
And I might say in a community in which it
would appear that the medical needs have increased.
[Narrator:] Director of Vanderbilt Clinic,
Dr. Joseph Snyder.
[Dr. Joseph Snyder:] We've been doing our very level best
to take care of all of the people.
And so far it's possible, but there are just too many of them
out there with just too many difficult needs that we just
can't take care of everyone.
And we need help.
We need all the help we can get.
We here in the clinic need to have
that arm out in the community.
I have no hesitation in saying that we could not
take care of as many patients as we
do if we did not have the services of Visiting Nurse.
The Visiting Nurse is the source of a great deal of comfort
and a great deal of strength for the patient
and a great deal of peace of mind for the physician.
[Carol Brown:] Go like that.
Good.
That's good.
[Narrator:] The difficult task of providing home health
care every day for thousands of New Yorkers
is a demanding and often frustrating
job requiring extreme dedication.
But it's the kind of challenge Visiting
Nurse Service of New York has been facing daily
for over 80 years.
[Older male patient:] [?]
[Carol Brown:] I was just going to say, it looks great today,
much better.
[Historical film]
[Narrator:] This long history of service to the city's people
began when New York was the teeming gateway to America
for millions of immigrants.
[Ragtime music]
Many of whom
settled in the crowded tenements of the Lower East Side.
It was here in a house on Henry Street
that Lillian Wald, a young nurse,
founded what is today Visiting Nurse Service of New York.
Inspired by her courage and dedication, thousands of nurses
have followed in her footsteps, alleviating the pain
and suffering of hundreds of thousands
of men, women, and children.
Times have changed, and neighborhoods have changed.
[Upbeat music]
But the human needs of people remain the same.
Today, field staff members of Visiting Nurse Service
make more than 400,000 visits a year to people in need of care.
Their visits take them into the city's most
disadvantaged slums,
[Street traffic]
to middle class neighborhoods,
and into the wealthiest sections.
For Visiting Nurse Service of New York
is for everyone, whoever they may be, young or old, married
or single, whether or not they can afford to pay.
Wherever the Visiting Nurse goes,
she must be resourceful enough to handle
a variety of problems.
In the home, she confronts loneliness, poverty,
and poor nutrition.
And a big part of her job is helping
people to organize their lives, teaching them
how to help themselves, as well as each other.
Carol Brown visits six or seven patients a day.
She helps to rehabilitate the handicapped,
teaches diet and nutrition, and works with doctors
to carry out an effective plan of care.
Her caseload runs the gamut from geriatric patients,
to the young man or woman living alone
who broke a leg in a skiing accident,
or the instruction of a new mother, for the care of her baby.
[Descending footsteps]
[Carol Brown:] In the hospital, people come to you
stripped of essentially everything they are, except
for being a patient.
They're not in their own environment.
They're in your environment.
And in the home, this is where they live.
This is how they live.
[Older female patient:] Sit down, honey.
[Carol Brown:] How have you been feeling?
I want to talk Ms. [?].
This is them, and I think it's real.
And I like it.
[Older female patient:] Straightening up and things
like that, and I'm not able to shop because when I was going,
me and this big shopping cart, I guess that was too much.
[Carol Brown:] Yeah.
[Renee Vassallo outside a patient's residence]
[Dog barking]
[Door opens]
[Barking]
[Narrator:] At a time when families are scattered
and neighborhoods are changing, a Visiting Nurse
like Renee Vassallo is more than a nurse.
[Footsteps ascending staircase]
[Renee Vassallo:] How are you doing today?
[Narrator:] She is like the daughter who lives halfway
across the continent.
The neighbor who moved away.
She is a friend.
[Renee Vassallo:] When I spoke to you on the phone before you
sounded very [?].
[Mrs. Trell:] Yeah, when I was coming up the stairs.
[Renee Vassallo:] Oh.
[Mrs. Trell:] And I will do my--
I'm a, I'm a little lame.
[Renee Vassallo:] Are you taking it easy?
[Mrs. Trell:] Yeah, I take it very easy, very slow.
[Renee Vassallo:] OK
[Mrs. Trell:] Very easy, very slow when
I walk I got to be slow because I haven't got the stand yet.
[Renee Vassallo:] Mr. Trell, hi.
[Mr. Trell:] How are you doing?
[Renee Vassallo:] How are you today?
[Mr. Trell:] Oh, I'm not too bad.
[Renee Vassallo:] Are you having any trouble with your breathing?
[Mrs. Trell:] Well, when I walk the stairs, you know.
Otherwise--
[Renee Vassallo:] Any coughing?
[Mrs. Trell:] --No, so far there's no coughing.
If I, once in a while I, you know.
[Renee Vassallo:] Are you bringing anything up when you cough?
[Mrs. Trell:] Yeah. [Renee Vassallo:] I little bit?
[Mrs. Trell:] Yeah.
There's nothing, just white phlegm and things like that.
[Renee Vassallo:] If there's any changes,
if you find that you're having more trouble breathing,
or that you're coughing more, let
me know so I can contact the doctor.
The last time you went back to the hospital
when that happened.
[Mrs. Trell:] Yeah, yeah.
[Renee Vassallo:] I don't think it will but, just to make sure.
[Mrs. Trell:] I hope not, I hope not.
[Renee Vassallo:] OK.
[Mrs. Trell:] So far, so good.
I said, God [?] I have that woman before.
[?] from the doctor.
Had a good doctor.
So far, I'm on my feet.
But I can say in nine months on my feet,
and I can do little things.
Not much, but I go around.
You know?
Every day a little bit.
And time just passes the week.
[Renee Vassallo:] Have you gotten any tingling or pain?
[Narrator:] The Visiting Nurse becomes
involved in the lives of people in a way
that few professionals can.
[Mr. Trell:] Most here.
[?]
[Narrator:] She plays many roles.
One of the most important and most rewarding
is that of family substitute.
[Renee Vassallo:] OK.
It's good.
[Mrs. Trell:] Now, let's hope so.
[Renee Vassallo:] OK.
[Mrs. Trell:] I have my share of everything,
so I'm praying to God that I come something better.
[Renee Vassallo:] OK.
Should I come back Friday to see you?
[Mrs. Trell:] All right.
[Renee Vassallo:] And Mr. Trell?
[Mrs. Trell:] [?] stays fine.
[Renee Vassallo:] OK.
[Mrs. Trell:] Any time, thank you.
[Renee Vassallo:] Well, when you make the strudel,
I'll definitely come back.
Whether you need me or not at that point, I'm coming back.
[Mrs. Trell:] Not this week yet,
I have to walk too far to the [?]..
[Geraldine Poloni:] This is Mrs. Poloni
from the Visiting Nurse Service.
Yes, this is Visiting Nurses.
[Narrator:] Geraldine Poloni starts her day
as all Visiting Nurses do, in a local district center.
[Sarah Lapin:] What about your medication?
[Background office noise]
[Geraldine Poloni:] Got my stethoscope in here, too.
Oh, I think being a Visiting Nurse,
you can offer them more of yourself,
more care, more of your attention,
more of your professional abilities.
And therefore, they do receive more.
They receive much more at a very individualistic level.
All right, whenever you're ready.
I'm ready.
[Patient:] I'm ready now.
[Geraldine Poloni:] All right.
OK, just stand there for a second.
[Narrator:] The Visiting Nurse is often
the only person bringing hope and happiness
to the lives she touches, sometimes their only contact
with the outside world.
This holds particularly true with many geriatric cases.
[Nurse assists patient to walk]
[Geraldine Poloni:] Just a little bit more.
[Narrator:] But she also plays an important part
in providing proper care for a new life.
[Sarah Lapin:] Are you left handed or right handed?]
[Mom:] Right handed?]
[Narrator:] Each year, thousands of expectant mothers
and new mothers receive instruction and guidance
in the care of their infants.
[Sarah Lapin:] Hey there, you a little chilly?
You're almost through.
[Narrator:] During visits to the home, nurses like Sarah Lapin
are trained to observe and evaluate
any physical, emotional, or social problems that
may affect patient care.
In the majority of cases, she is equipped
to handle such problems.
[Sarah Lapin:] For many times, there are social problems that
the parents are trying to deal with.
And this is when you turn to your social worker.
And I asked him to make a visit to find out
what's going on to see if we can be of help in this area,
whether it's housing, whether it's dealing
with different city agencies.
But this our social worker takes care of or tries to.
[Narrator:] Often a patient's pressing
health problems are intertwined
with social and economic circumstances.
[Social worker:] I'll be accompanying you when you go.
I spoke with a lawyer from legal aid.
[Narrator:] Together with the other professionals
of Visiting Nurse Service, he works to ease the physical.
[Social worker:] And they're not going to be
recouping that money from your check.
[Narrator:] The emotional and the environmental conditions
that affect people's lives, bringing them
the resources to help them get through difficult times.
[Nurse practitioner:] Have you had any difficulty?
[Narrator:] To meet the needs of the community,
Visiting Nurse Service has broadened the range
and scope of health care, adding to its staff
specialists in physical therapy, rehabilitation, and speech
therapy, specialists in mental health, and nutrition.
And the family nurse practitioner,
who has special training in physical assessment
and management of patient care.
She is a valuable link in the Visiting Nurse program
of cooperation with hospitals, ministering to patients
after they are discharged.
Visiting Nurse Service of New York
recognizes that home health care is
only part of the solution to the increasing health
needs of its community.
They are also reaching out to the walking sick and the
walking worried too in centrally located places.
Like the one at the George Washington Bridge Bus Terminal.
Under the guidance of a dedicated board of directors
special committees and volunteers,
they have established a program of reaching out to people
in a variety of settings.
Bringing help and aid to clubs for troubled youths,
shelters for homeless men, schools
for unwed, pregnant girls. Drug addiction centers,
and single room occupancy hotels.
[Female patient:] I had a little cottage cheese
with a couple of peaches.
[Narrator:] At the very heart of the Visiting Nurse
Service is a philosophy of true concern for the needs
and problems of people, whoever or wherever they may be,
a strong desire to reach out and help on a personal one
to one basis.
[Footsteps]
It's hard work, demanding, and sometimes frustrating.
[Apartment house hallway]
[Distant crying and chatter]
But not without its rewards and personal satisfaction,
which can be found every day in the eyes of thousands
of grateful patients.
It's a service that requires people
who are not only trained in their profession
but have a concern and compassion
for their fellow man.
[Children fussing]
Truly, a special breed highly motivated to help in every way
they can, like nurse Olga Perez.
[Olga Perez:] The reason I primarily
went in was to teach the mother how
to take care of the little girl with the spica cast
and to perhaps show her some ways--
since this limits the little girl's movements--
to show her some ways in which she
didn't have to be so limited.
You're trying to teach people how to stay well,
to give them preventive care, which
is the kind of information that they need to be in the home,
to be independent.
It wasn't easy because there were
just so many other problems.
I mean, this wasn't the only thing.
You come into the house.
There was no furniture.
The apartment was sadly in need of repairs.
The mother's pregnant, and then there
was a little boy who had clubbed feet.
And it was the other child who had pneumonia,
which kept reoccurring.
So it was like from one thing to another.
She was-- she could spend the whole week
just making clinic appointments, never
mind trying to manage a home with three
very active little children.
The mother was warm and caring, and it
was like the kind of home.
You walk in and say, oh, they deserved everything,
and you wish you could do everything for them.
[Narrator:] Nurses like Olga Perez, Sara Lapin,
[Music]
Geraldine Poloni, and Carol Brown are just a few
of the great many concerned people who comprise Visiting
Nurse Service of New York.
It is through the efforts of Visiting
Nurse Service of New York and agencies
like theirs that the importance of home health care
is being recognized throughout America.
But the ability to provide the broadest range of home health
care requires volunteers, public contributions, medical science,
and social services all working together
to help meet the needs of our society.
[Music continues]
[Kitty Carlisle Hart:] In a hectic world, we are often
lost in the preoccupation of earning a living,
making a life.
And the dedication and devotion of the Visiting Nurse
to the needs of others is a lesson to us all.
We never know until it strikes home how illness or handicap
[Street traffic]
can change the life, our lives.
We never know when we ourselves may need
the helping hands of others.
Through its inspiring program of service to people,
the Visiting Nurse Service of New York
reaches out and touches us all in times of need.
[Music]
[In Time of Need]
[Directed by: Ralph Weisinger]
[Narrated by: Joe Given] [Written by: Kitty Hansen]
[Editor: Sal Termini] [Music: Michael Shapiro]
[Dir. of Photography: Ralph Weisinger]
[Asst. cameraman: Richard Reis, Ernest Miceli]
[Production manager: Ben Oliver]
[Production Asst.: Linda Halberstadt, Cathy Nonas]
[Produced by: Avon Productions, Inc.]