Blissfield Place Assisted Living
During our search for HealthCap Heroes, we recently received a note from Maureen Smith from Blissfield Place Assisted Living, wanting to recognize her amazing leader, Amy Hoffman. She shared how much her work, attitude, and effort has affected both residents and staff, and explained the effect such a positive attitude has had. Aside from initiating fun such as making homemade goodies for residents to sell and baking cakes for birthdays, Amy’s presence seems to bring much calm to Blissfield, and we want to amplify that recognition and tell everyone about what a hero she is! Read below for Maureen’s inspiring words about Amy:
“I would like to tell you about my Administrator, Amy Hoffman, and her efforts to keep all residents and staff healthy and happy during this pandemic. From the very beginning, Amy has gone above and beyond to ensure that we have the proper PPE supplies in stock (and overstocked!!) to ensure the safety of everyone. She has been proactive in many ways, preparing us well ahead of time both physically and mentally. She understood that what was coming would be a huge change in all of our lives and would affect our residents and their families in ways we could not imagine. She did her absolute best to prepare all of us for what was to come.
Amy is a very hardworking person, who dedicates herself to ensuring the best possible experience for everyone that lives or works at Blissfield Place. She is a positive force who relies on her faith and her positive energy to guide us daily, but especially so through these tough times. Even on the toughest of days, she has a smile and a kind word of encouragement to help us through. She makes us laugh through our tears and reminds us that God is bigger than what is happening. We have been fortunate enough to, thus far, escape the COVID-19 virus. That is not to say that it won’t happen here, but at this time, it has not entered our home. I believe that is in big part, due to the diligence of Amy enforcing the safety precautions and mentoring the staff in a positive manner. She has been a comfort to many of us who have struggled to understand the pandemic and has been able to ease the minds of our residents as well. She is real and honest, but compassionate.
Unfortunately, we lost 4 residents during the COVID-19 pandemic, not from the virus, but from natural causes. In some cases, the family did not make it in time to say goodbye to their loved ones. For the staff, that was very hard to accept, as we care for them while their loved one passes as well. The pandemic has hurt people in ways other than just sickness; the stress and loneliness it has caused our residents has been difficult to watch. The residents have tolerated what is happening as well as they can. Their generation is used to ‘rolling with the punches.’ They are tough and they are hearty, but they are also human. I believe, in some way, that contributed to the losses we suffered during the past two months.
Not being able to hug or comfort people in the way that we are accustomed to was extremely difficult. Watching our residents ‘visit’ with their families through windows as milestone birthdays passed without hugs from their families, was almost unbearable. But Amy lifted our spirits and reminded us that there are other ways to bring happiness to them. We give them their parties, we sing to them, we substitute ourselves as much as possible to celebrate with them, to give them some small semblance of normality; and when their time to go comes, we comfort them, pray with them, hold their hands and remind them that they are loved until their family can get there.
Our home, is just that, a home where we care for one another and when one hurts, we all hurt. Amy has prayed with us, cried with us and supported us in ways that have made a difference in all of us. She is strong, she is caring and she is amazingly good at what she does! We are blessed to have someone like Amy as the ‘Captain’ of our ship!! She makes working here bearable on the bad days and amazingly happy on the good. Her positive attitude and her kind ways help to mentor all of us to be better and do better at what we do.”
Thank you Maureen for sharing this wonderful recognition, and thank you Amy for being such an incredible leader and source of support for your team; you inspire us with your heroic efforts!
