Red leaves on a frosty tree

Stories about

Providence Health Care

My journey with Providence

After my second visit to the Woods, she asked me, “Do you know anything about Providence Associates?” I was not familiar with an associate relationship with the Sisters of Providence. She invited me to consider becoming one. She provided me with information and brochures. Mostly, she provided me with encouragement and this excitement and enthusiasm about her community and its mission.

Sisters preserving memories through memory books

Memory books detail and preserve aspects of a person’s life history with photographs, artifacts and narratives. They facilitate life-affirming interaction, encourage deep reflection and celebrate life events through story-telling and reminiscing. And they are effective in stimulating memories, especially for individuals living with dementia.

Making someone’s day just by showing up: Teen shares her experience as a Providence Teen Volunteer

We usually think of volunteering as weeding a garden or picking up trash (those are important too, of course), but it can be more. It can be making someone’s day just by showing up. It can be learning things you never knew from someone who experienced it first-hand. It can be the satisfied feeling you get when someone laughs at a joke you made. Volunteering isn’t just mundane tasks. It’s knowing and feeling and connecting with people.

Education in everyday caring makes a difference

Staff members who participated in dementia care training share how it makes a difference in their everyday care giving: Don’t take any behaviors personally.** Build trust by spending time with each person.** Learn to read the cues of a person. A non-verbal person may ordinarily smile as a greeting; but if there’s no smile, she’s having a bad time of it.