Perry-area elder-care centers have seen many changes and faced several challenges recently. Wanda Pritzel, director of fund development at the Perry Lutheran Home, stopped by the May 8 meeting of the Perry Kiwanis Club to discuss services offered by the Perry Lutheran Home.
Pritzel lives in Fort Dodge, where she holds the position of director of professional services with Lutheran Family Services. She divides her time between the Perry Lutheran Home and Lutheran Family Services and has worked with the Perry facility for about one year.
Pritzel said the Perry Lutheran Home opened in 1956 in the former Kings Daughters Hospital, which was built in 1913 in the location then known as High View Estates. The original hospital stood where the facility’s rear parking lot is now located.
In the 1960s and 1970s, additions increased the size of the facility. The Kings Daughters location was torn down in 1979, and the ruins were dumped in a ravine on the late George Carpenter’s property near the current Perry Golf and Country Club. The old Perry State Bank building is also resting there.
According to old newspaper articles, the Kings Daughters Hospital was not meeting building code safety standards for hospitals even by the 1940s. Over time, these regulations forced the removal of residents from the Kings Daughter building and increased pressure for a new building with up-to-date safety and fire protections.
At the time when the old Lutheran Home was torn down, it was being used only as office space. This old hospital still evokes feelings of nostalgia among Perry residents, many of whom were born in Kings Daughter. It was also the location where Buck Barrow of the famed Barrow gang died after being captured at Dexfield Park near Dexter.
Pritzel said the Perry Lutheran Home strives to meet three concepts. These are to seek to be innovative, personalized and Christ centered. She also said the Perry Lutheran Home has two campuses. The main campus is located on Willis Avenue and specializes in dementia care and traditional nursing care and has nine assisted-living units.
The Spring Valley Campus is located on 12th Street and is connected to the Dallas County Hospital and Mercy Clinics Family Medicine. Residents at Spring Valley can access these two locations without having to go outside. Spring Valley is an assisted living facility that also has a dementia care assisted living unit.
The Lutheran Home also owns the house on Willis located next to Main Campus. It is known as the annex.
Pritzel said the goal of these facilities is to provide a continuum of care as a person’s needs for care change over time.
Acorns and Oaks day care opened in the basement of the main campus building in July 2017. This service offers residents a chance to interact with children. Some residents work in the day care on a regular basis. The children are also able to make a connection even with residents who have dementia. This is very meaningful to the residents. Acorns and Oaks allows staff members a location where their children can be watched while they are working.
The Lutheran Home is one of 19 care organization in the state that are certified in music and memory. Residents are evaluated for what types of music interests them. They are then given headsets and a player with their preferred music. This can help to stimulate positive brain function, which creates a better quality of life for the residents. Music therapy has also been shown to cut down on agitation.
Pritzel discussed other services that the Perry Lutheran Home offers. The Lutheran Home strives to provide purposeful and meaningful activities for the residents, which benefit other people, she said.
For the past few years, the Lutheran Home has been raising money and providing a day of packing meals with Meals from the Heartland. Several residents assist with this along with many organizations from the area. The Perry Kiwanis Club was one of the organization that helped to pack meals this year. This year 34,000 meals were packed. This will help people in need all over the world, including in the U.S.
Perry Lutheran Home residents also regularly help to cut and roll bandages for a hospital in the Cameroon, Africa. Pritzel said area hospitals donate old sheets to the Lutheran Home, and these are stored on pallets in the garage. Residents first rip the sheets into strips and remove the strings, and then the bandages are rolled tightly with a special device. They are sent to the hospital in Cameroon where they are used for patients.
Recently, several of the bandages were used for a girl who was severely burned. The bandages are processed in the regular activity schedules, and several residents also make these bandages on their own.
The Perry Lutheran Home has also been making sandals out of old blue jeans to be used in Africa.
Currently, weekly worship services are offered to residents every Sunday at 8:30 a.m. The public is also invited to this service.
Pritzel said a goal of the Main Campus is to create a green space between the facility and the annex. The goal is to have a fenced-in space where residents may come and go as they wish in a safe place and interact with plant life.
Pritzel said additional information can be found about the Perry Lutheran Home online and through its newsletter.
In July the Perry Lutheran Home will host a 5K run and walk. As runners go through the course, the music of different decades will be featured along with decade-themed decorations. Information can be found by accessing the website or calling 515-465-5342.
Welcoming Pritzel was 44-year Perry Kiwnaian Lawrence Bice.
