This year, LifeCare Alliance will celebrate 50 years of providing wellness services, a milestone that is significant for the Agency as well as tens of thousands of clients who have been served over the decades.
Community Wellness Centers, located throughout Franklin County, have a wide reach for clients such as Ms. Fleeter, who regularly visits the Community Wellness Center at Marion-Franklin Community Center.
Ms. Fleeter has been a client for more than six years and attends exercise classes taught by Registered Nurse Barb Parker, has her blood pressure checked, and receives foot care services that prevent her from more-frequent visits to her podiatrist.
Ms. Fleeter has formed a bond with Nurse Barb. “I think she’s so nice,” she said. “She’s really sweet. I like her.”
The exercise classes taught by Nurse Barb are especially beneficial, Ms. Fleeter says.
“It helps me because my fingers sometimes get stiff. Barbara tells us plenty of things to do to loosen up your hands. ‘You’ve got to use them,’ she says. Best thing she says for your hands is washing dishes. Well, I say I sure do enough of those!”
Ms. Fleeter, who says she worked as a chef at a local hospital for more than 35 years, visits the Community Wellness Center as much as twice a week. Without the Community Wellness Center, she would need to make more frequent visits to her doctor, which would cost more money. Ms. Fleeter is also concerned about driving a longer distance because with freeway construction, driving to the doctor’s office can be confusing.
But it’s the trust Ms. Fleeter puts in Nurse Barb that keeps her coming back. Sometimes, she says, she finds herself sharing more with Nurse Barb than she does with her doctor.
“I think Barbara is greater than my doctor!” she says.
To learn more about LifeCare Alliance’s Community Wellness Centers, visit https://www.lifecarealliance.org/programs/wellness/wellness-centers/.