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HEALTHCARE HEROES OF WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS
Graham
Continued from page A27
becoming her chosen field, she became intrigued by the comments
of some friends who worked at O’Connell’s who told her it was a great place to work. She applied late last fall, and started in December.
By the following March, she had settled in; she had a few clients assigned to her and also filled in when a colleague was out.
When she came back from vacation, that world changed as well. She was still seeing many of the same clients she did before COVID struck, but now, the work was different. It now entailed social distancing, mask wearing, and being extra diligent when it came to keeping the client and family members — and herself — safe.
“It was quite challenging at first
— having to wear a mask all day
was ... different, and it was a new environment,” she recalled. “But after a little bit, you got used to it. And for the clients, it was difficult for them, because it was hard for them to understand what you were saying. I was thinking, ‘now we have to think differently and respond to them differently. I have to be much louder and slow my words; clients don’t like the mask.’
“I’ve been double-gloving,” she went on, referring to the practice of wearing two sets of gloves in the homes of those clients she has to help physically. “In some cases, they tell you not to double-glove, because it’s easier for your gloves to rip, but double-gloving for me has been a life saver.”
The bigger, even more significant change came with her decision to volunteer for work at the triage center created to care for the homeless population, work that became almost full-time as the spring semester ended and her schedule opened up.
“Anyone who had the virus or felt they had the virus came into these two large tents — they were essentially living there,” she explained, adding that individuals were tested on site and placed in two categories: PUI (patients under investigation), and the “COVID side,” where residents were housed in designated quarters based on whether they tested positive or negative.
Elaborating, she said there was an intake process, testing, and then the aides would bring them into a tent, make up a bed for them, get them something to eat, and help in any way they could. “If they needed anything, we were there for them.”
While a few people volunteered for work at the triage center, Hynek told HCN, Graham’s commitment stood out.
“She really stepped up the plate when it came to transitioning away from the elderly care and into the homeless care and serving that vulnerable population,” he noted. “She
took on a brand-new challenge, and I don’t think a lot of people would step up to the plate in that situation.”
As noted earlier, this work was a learning experience on many levels, and it also changed her perspective on the homeless population.
“This experience changed my mind on how I look at them,” she explained. “Being younger, I would look at a homeless person and say, ‘why don’t you just get a job?’ Working with them
completely changed how I felt; I got to understand what it’s like for them — how much of a struggle it is for them on a daily basis.
Graham is back in school now, taking classes remotely while returning to
the Bay Path campus for labs. She still works at O’Connell at a part-time basis, taking care of a few clients and double- gloving as always. The COVID-19 fight is far from over, but she has already absorbed a number of lessons that
have helped her grow personally and professionally and given her that new perspective on what she wants to do with her life.
If this was a test — and she would say it has been, on a number of levels — then she has certainly aced it, becoming, in the process, one of the many Healthcare Heroes of 2020. n
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HEALTHCARE NEWS
OCTOBER 2020 A39
2020 HEALTHCARE HEROES