St. Camillus staff shares joy.

• Position: NEWS

Byline: Ellie Oleson

COLUMN: TELEGRAM & GAZETTE SANTA

Joanne E. Lebel, a certified nurse assistant, remembers a time, decades ago, when the severely ill with no hope of recovery were taken to St. Camillus Hospital for Incurable Diseases in Whitinsville to die, sometimes with no family in attendance.

"When I started at St. Camillus, it was a chronic disease hospital with 68 beds for people with multiple sclerosis, cancer, muscular dystrophy or other incurable disease. They would be dropped off and some would never see their families again. I was 19. They became my family," Mrs. Lebel said.

She has worked at what is now St. Camillus Health Care Center at 447 Hill St. in Whitinsville for 32 years, and has seen the changes that have increased the old hospital's size to a 132-bed facility, empowered patients, encouraged family involvement in health care, and moved St. Camillus to become a place of care, hope, faith and fun.

The nursing staff on Mrs. Lebel's 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. shift at St. Camillus shares the joy by sending an annual donation to the Telegram & Gazette Santa Fund.

"Annette McCallum, a retired nurse, started that in memory of her grandmother. We've been doing it for years," Mrs. Lebel said.

Participating shift members donate $1 of their check each payday to a fund, which is used to buy flowers for members who lose a family member, retire, have a baby, get married or face other momentous events.

"It adds up. At Christmas, we donate some of it to the Gazette Santa instead of having a gift exchange. All of us at St. Camillus like to help people," Mrs. Lebel said.

St. Camillus Hospital for Incurable Diseases was built in the mid-1960s by brothers in the Order of St. Camillus, who are known as the "Servants of the Sick" and have worn red crosses on their robes as a form of identification since the 17th century.

"In the early days, some of our residents had families who came to visit, but other residents were just dropped off and that was it," Mrs. Lebel said.

Over the years, the hospital's focus changed from a place to die to a place full of life. Since 2002, St. Camillus Health Center has been owned and run as a non-profit rehabilitation center and nursing home with 123 beds and has become a national leader in the "Culture Change" movement, which centers all aspects of the facility on residents.

"Some of our patients reside here. This is their home. Others are in hospice. Some come in, have rehabilitation and go home," Mrs. Lebel said.

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