Women of WIN give to help Nebraska’s elderly
Giving isn’t always good. Like when doctors give people too many meds.
Giving isn’t always good.
Like when doctors give people too many meds.
This happened to an elderly Nebraska woman not long ago. It made her seem demented. It hurt her health.
“Her family adored her, and they came to us,” says Claudia Chaperon, Ph.D., who’s head of the UNMC College of Nursing’s Mobile Nurse Managed Clinic – a medically equipped bus that helps people like that woman.
“We discovered the reason she was having problems was because she was on about 25 medications. We gently started to wean her off things that were not that good for older people.”
And, says Chaperon, the woman had “an awakening.”
The care and expertise of the nurses in that UNMC mobile nurse bus gave that woman her life back.
Chaperon told this story not long ago to a group of women dedicated to giving back to the state, and making it an even better place to live. These were the women of WIN – Women Investing in Nebraska – a new group formed to find worthy projects in the state and in the University of Nebraska to support.
The College of Nursing’s mobile nurse project was one of WIN’s first two grant recipients this year. It received $77,425 to expand its territory and improve healthcare services for vulnerable older people in rural areas near Kearney. (The other recipient was the Nebraska Alliance of Child Advocacy Centers, which will use their money to launch a statewide training initiative focused on preventing child abuse, identifying the signs of it and reporting it.)
“I guess I just want to tell you all how very much this means to us to have your support,” Chaperon told the women. “We feel so validated by this. I guess we feel like all of you are like our partners now.
“We’re enamored of your organization now. Women Investing in Nebraska – it just felt so right for us.”
To learn how you can join with the women of WIN to support Nebraska and university projects like the College of Nursing’s Mobile Nurse Managed Clinic, please visit womeninvestinginnebraska.org or call the University of Nebraska Foundation’s Tracy Edgerton at 800-432-3216.
(And if you have a special woman in your life with a charitable heart, you might consider getting her a membership in WIN as a gift this holiday season.)
