The Bellingham Herald (WA)

Director of home cares for the ill and dying
Dean Khan Staff
Published: December 12, 2004
Dorothy Turner has won praise for the heartfelt care that residents receive at the boarding home she runs. Now she's heartsick about the prospect that several of them may have to leave because of government cuts.

Turner, who's 72, was named administrator of Columbia Place, in Bellingham's Columbia neighborhood, two years ago, after 16 years there as a caregiver.

The 102-year-old building is worn, but cozy, with room for 30 residents. Of the two dozen there now, four are people with mental health problems who could lose their housing money at the start of the new year.

Thousands of people across the state face a similar fate. The $41 million in statewide cuts, if they happen, would result from a state vs. federal quarrel as tangled as tired spaghetti.

If the four residents lose their housing support, Columbia Place will let them stay on for at least a few months in hopes they can find another place to live or another program to help, says Connie Caruceriu, an accountant with Morningdew LLC, which owns Columbia Place.

Mental health advocates fear that people cut loose from their funding will end up on the streets, where it's hard to find meals and shelter, and far too easy to forget to take their meds. "If they end up going to the hospital, how much is that going to cost, and who is going to pay?" Caruceriu asked.

For more than a decade, mental health agencies in Washington have used Medicaid money to pay some expenses, such as housing, for non-Medicaid mental patients. The federal government used to go along with that, but last spring the deficit-laden feds told the state to stop. Despite the warnings from above, the state didn't set aside housing money of its own for its mentally troubled citizens.

"Residential costs can no longer be supported with the federal dollars, and there's no state dollars," said Gary Williams, a mental health program specialist with the county Health Department. "We're waiting to see what the state is going to do."

There's talk that the sate might come up with some extra mental health money, but it's unclear whether enough will be available to cover housing. And with a new governor still weeks away, the state might not get its act together in time to beat the Jan. 1 federal deadline.

In the meantime, Turner worries about the four residents. One of them tried living on his own, but became suicidal. He's doing better now at Columbia Place, where his relatives send a thank-you note every month.
"He just feels more secure with people around him who love him," Turner said. "It's more like a family to him."


Cindy Cullup, a nurse with Whatcom Hospice, says that friendly approach to the mentally ill and other residents, including terminally ill ones, has earned Columbia Place the highest praise possible from hospice nurses - it's the place they'd go to when it's their time to die.
The credit, Cullup says, goes to Turner and her staff, but especially to Turner.
"She goes above and beyond what normal people in this society do for people who are dying," Cullup said. "She will come in at 4 o'clock in the morning to be with a patient who is dying, so they won't be alone."
Turner has gone to a store to buy special food for hospice patients, who find it harder to swallow as they approach death. And every Christmas, Turner and her staff make sure each resident has at least one gift waiting under the tree.
"She puts in countless, countless hours," Cullup said. "Her heart is in the right place."
Cullup nominated Turner for a special award last month, which was National Hospice Month. Hospice nurses signed a card that accompanied the award, which hangs on the wall in Turner's cramped office.
"She broke down in tears for that," Cullup said.



Copyright (c) The Bellingham Herald. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of Gannett Co., Inc.