18 ARE CERTIFIED TO WORK WITH ELDERLY

Elderly people used to scare Shannon Kitchen. But not any more; now he sees them as his calling.

On Friday, Kitchen, a junior at Southeast Missouri State University, attended a Long Term Care Ombudsman Program meeting with about 40 other people at the Cape Baptist Association Office and Media Center on East Old Cape Road. The program is offered through the Southeast Missouri Area Agency on Aging and is held for people who act as volunteer ombudsmen at nursing homes in the agency's 18-county service area.

Eighteen new ombudsmen received certification in the program Friday after completing 18 hours of training. They came from as far away as Kennett and Farmington.

Kitchen, 22, is a social-work student minoring in gerontology. He became an ombudsman last year.

He said he felt the program would enable him to become better at working with the elderly. After college, he wants to work as a nursing home inspector for the Missouri Division of Aging, he said.

It used to be that elderly people scared him, Kitchen said.

"I didn't know how to act or what to say," he said, "but I learned to get over that at an early age (by working) at a nursing home. Really, the elderly changed my life as to what my career goals are."

Kitchen said that when he was 15 he got a job at the Cape Girardeau Nursing Center, where he worked until he was about 19 or 20. Until that time, he said, he wanted to go into law enforcement and work for the Missouri Highway Patrol.

The first time he heard about the program through either his job or his classes at the college, he said he knew it was right for him. Today he serves as a volunteer ombudsman at the Fountainbleau Nursing Home in Cape Girardeau.

Kitchen acknowledged he's young for a nursing home ombudsman. There aren't too many young people in the program, he said, because they too are scared of the elderly and don't know how to behave towards them.

"I'm still trying to recruit at the school students who are going into the gerontology field, to let them know about the program," he said.

The purpose of an ombudsman is to communicate regularly with nursing home residents, establish a relationship of trust with them, listen to their concerns, and help to protect their rights. Also, the ombudsman encourages residents to speak for themselves and seeks to resolve any problems within the facility. All information is kept confidential.

Program Director Willa R. Standford said the program "gives residents of nursing homes a voice."

"We listen to their problems and complaints and try to provide them with the tools to solve their problems," she said. "If they can't speak for themselves, we'll intercede on their behalf."

Friday's meeting was attended by not only veteran and new ombudsmen, but also nursing home employees, said Stanford. The meetings are held every three months to sharpen the ombudsmen's skills and update them on new information.

Louise Moreton of Wyatt is an ombudsmen who's at the other end of the age spectrum. The 74-year-old said she's worked as an ombudsman since 1985. She works at three Mississippi County nursing homes: Charleston Manor, East Prairie Nursing Center, and Bertrand Nursing Center.

Moreton said she decided to become an ombudsmen after the death of her mother, who had lived in a nursing home.

"I wasn't aware that there were so many people at the nursing home who had no one to visit them. That was a need I thought needed to be filled," she said.

Said Moreton, "I feel that by listening you pick up on problems when they are small and get something done about them before they become big problems. The resident is usually afraid if they complain somebody" at the home will hold it against them. "But they talk freely with me."

One new ombudsmen, Barbara Ianniello of Jackson, said she has always had an interest in older people and they are a valuable resource.

"I think older people in our society kind of get pushed aside. I think that's a shame," she said.

Along with Ianniello, the new ombudsmen are Warren Hastings and Helen Howard of Cape Girardeau; Melba Gough of Dexter; Velma Dobbs and Delores Aubuchon of Chaffee; Cliff Goss of Malden; Ruth Greer of Hornersville; Ollie Vance and Dolores Grammling of Kennett; Lucille Politte of Fairdealing; Maudie Sanders, Marie Shelton and Georgia Mitchener of Poplar Bluff; Marvin Dobbs, Phyllis Burch and Florence Bone of Farmington; and Rosalyn Warren of Fredericktown.