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Milestones: Visiting Nurse Association of South Central Connecticut
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Business New Haven
11/24/2003
By: Priscilla Searles
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Visiting Nurse Association of South Central Connecticut
One Long Wharf Drive
New Haven, CT 06534
Tel: 203-777-5521
Fax: 203-787-5198
Web: www.vnascc.org
Milestone: 100 years
Timeline: The Visiting Nurse Association of South Central Connecticut, founded in 1904 as the Visiting Nurse Association of New Haven, began its first full year of service in 1905 under the leadership of Lillian E. Prudden, its first president. That year, the agency's first visiting nurse, Mary Grace Hills, made an astonishing 1,500 home visits.
According to the minutes of the VNA's first annual meeting in 1910, the organization was established in response to "the desire of physicians that skilled service, rendered freely, often gratuitously, should be followed by a nurse whose training and judgment would counterbalance ignorance and carelessness, the longing of earnest women to give efficient help where poverty was added to suffering, and the wish to establish a fitting memorial to one whose life of ministry to our city poor had suddenly passed into life more abundant."
In 1920, in cooperation with the American Red Cross, Yale University's Department of Public Health and the city of New Haven's Department of Health, a health center demonstration project was initiated to provide preventative and curative health services. In 1922, to provide more effective nursing care services for families and patients, services became generalized - that is, one staff nurse would provide all public health nursing services to one family instead of several staff nurses visiting the same family.
Achievements and Accomplishments: During the 1960s, with support from United Way and the New Haven Foundation, as well as the cooperation of local municipal health departments, the association began to provide community health care to East Haven, New Haven, West Haven and Milford. The agency also entered into a contractual arrangement with the city of New Haven to provide nursing staff for 60 of New Haven's public and parochial schools. In addition, nursing service was provided in 20 pre-kindergarten centers sponsored by the city's Department of Education.
The VNA was has been much involved with other community social and health agencies and school districts. For instance, in 1961, the agency participated in the Cooperative Care Project, which provided care to mentally ill patients and their families for five years; the Conte School Demonstration Project for the implementation of generalized public health nursing service in the elementary schools of selected New Haven districts; and the demonstration project at Yale-New Haven Medical Center for comprehensive family health care services by assigning a staff nurse as a team member.
During the late 1960s and into the 1970s, the agency directed its efforts toward meeting the home-care needs of the chronically ill, the handicapped and the elderly while, at the same time, maintaining the New Haven school nursing services.
After several years of collaborative working relationships, a formal contract became effective with Connecticut Hospice Inc. for the Visiting Nurse Association to provide home health aides and nursing and physical therapy services to patients in the Hospice Home Care Program.
In 1989 the Visiting Nurse Association of New Haven became the VNA of South Central Connecticut Inc. as a consequence of the merger of the Milford and Valley VNAs.
Looking Back on a Changing Industry: The agency's clients are living longer, and many as a result need assistance to cope with the effects of long-term illness. This trend, along with escalating costs of institutional care, has increased governmental and public awareness of the advantages of in-home health care services.
As well, "An ever-increasing function of the agency is to teach patients how to care for themselves and caregivers how to care for patients. Encouraging patients and family members to take an active role in their health care is an essential part of the mix and an established practice at VNA/SCC."
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