Jewish Home Lifecare :: Caring as individual as you

Following Her Heart: Beverley Salkey is HAPI

Meet one of the caring, dedicated home health aides with HAPI
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Following Her Heart: Beverley Salkey is HAPI
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Following Her Heart: Beverley Salkey is HAPI

The Associate Chairman of Research for Beth Israel Medical Center is a busy man.  But that didn’t keep him from penning a note of praise.  After examining his long-time patient, Mrs. Lanigan, who suffers from Bipolar Disorder, the doctor reported, that despite the challenges of her situation, “This is the best condition Mrs. Lanigan has been in for quite some time.”

He attributed this marked improvement to Beverley Salkey, a Home Health Aide (HHA) with Jewish Home Lifecare, Home Assistance Personnel, Inc. (HAPI).  “While working with her, Ms. Salkey helped her immensely with her consistency, warmth, and steady demeanor.”  He went on to say that, if for any reason Ms. Salkey had to leave Mrs. Lanigan, the result would be “significant deterioration in her condition.”

Beverley Salkey, who’s been a HHA with HAPI for more than 18 years, first became interested in health care in junior high school.  After attending Brooklyn College she first found work as a secretary.  When she got laid off, she decided to follow her heart and pursued her certification as a nurses’ aide.  Soon after, she found an opportunity with HAPI, where she’s been working ever since.  She received her HHA certification in 1998.

Beverley has found that the being a HHA with HAPI calls for a range of skills; professionalism, meticulous adherence to care plans, cultivating strong and productive working relationships with nurses, social workers, and family members, and of course, the hand-on patient care.

Beverley says, “This work is my passion.  My job is to make sure that the patient does not go into the hospital or the nursing home. I am always there in every way.”

Mrs. Lanigan would concur.  A little over a month after Beverley started with her, her young adult son passed away.  She says that if it had not been for Beverley, she would not have been able to make it through that period.

“She is my angel from God,” Ms. Lanigan says, noting that in the past she’s had mobility issues and history of falls, and needs to follow a special diet.  Despite these challenges, she reports, she is better now than in the last 10 years – and much of the credit goes to Beverley.

HAPI has provided Beverley with many opportunities to refresh her skills and further her education.  She even went to Washington to represent senior aides at a conference on Diabetes.
Because she exemplifies Jewish Home Lifecare’s ideal of providing an “enhanced touch,” she was promoted to the Berman Peer Mentor program in 2008.  In addition to working with her clients, Beverley now mentors HAPI’s newly hired Home Health Aides, sharing with them the skills and devotion that make her such an exceptional caregiver.

For more information on HAPI, see the HAPI webpage.