A Touch of Grace: Massage Therapy Aids Retired Nuns

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The Wall Street Journal

A Touch of Grace: Massage Therapy Aids Retired Nuns
Bronx Nursing Home Finds Drug Alternative; 'Oh, This Is Heaven'
By LUCETTE LAGNADO
March 10, 2008; Page A1

BRONX, N.Y. -- Here at the Providence Rest nursing home, which caters mostly to retired nuns and devout Roman Catholics, Harold Packman has developed an important expertise: Giving massages to women who may have spent a lifetime shying away from this kind of physical contact. Women like Sister Mary Austin Cantwell. Recently, Sister Cantwell, 67 years old and wearing some traditional vestments, rolled in on her motorized scooter for an appointment. Mr. Packman gingerly lifted the hem of the nun's black skirt and started rubbing her arthritic knee. "Oh, this is heaven," Sister Cantwell exclaimed as he applied cream to her afflicted joint. "I am in heaven."

Sister Cantwell is a bit of an exception: She lets Mr. Packman make contact directly with her knee without any intervening garment. Many other patients are more vigilant, arriving in long dresses, support hose, and bulky long-sleeved sweaters that are not to be disturbed. Providence Rest hired Mr. Packman, a licensed massage therapist, as part of an unusual experiment to cut its use of antipsychotic drugs. These controversial drugs -- which are often used as "chemical restraints" to sedate agitated patients -- have set off a national debate over whether nursing homes are misusing them. Newer versions, known as "atypical" antipsychotics, can increase the risk of death in elderly people with Alzheimer's disease, the Food and Drug Administration has warned.

Providence Rest's alternative treatments sound like something from a pricey spa, not a nursing home in the Bronx. Instead of antipsychotics, it has developed regimens involving aromatherapy, long, soothing bubble baths, use of medicines thought to have fewer, less severe side-effects -- and Mr. Packman's rubdowns. The results are startling. Nationwide, some 30% of nursing-home patients are put on antipsychotics, according to federal data, but Providence Rest has cut its own use down to 2% or 3%. That's the lowest rate of any nursing home in New York, and among the lowest in the country, according to the New York Association of Homes & Services for the Aging.

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Mr. Packman's strongest weapon in persuading clients to acquiesce to his touch may be the fact that he's as old as -- or older than -- most of the women he treats. "There are advantages to looking like I do," says Mr. Packman, who is 85, although with his sprightly gait and shock of white hair doesn't look a day over 80. "Patients say, 'You have no idea how much pain I have,' and I say, 'Oh yes I do.' ".. Patients arrive for their massages in wheelchairs and never disrobe or even lie down. At the most, some might merely let him lift up a trouser leg. No matter. Mr. Packman, who has been a massage therapist for nearly a half-century, insists he can get the job done while respecting the boundaries. To put patients at ease, he banters like a borscht-belt tummler, delivering a stream of corny old jokes.

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[dropkickpa]

1. I have to wonder

How much of the effect is due just to the human connection? Having a half an hour of someones undivided attention has to be good for someone who is likely quite lonely most of the time.

A good friend of the family works in a motherhouse/retirement home for the Sisters of St. Francis, and she tells me that, often, there will not be a single solitary visitor for weeks to months for her nuns. She makes an effort to speak to everyone, but not all of the employees do, and she works in the kitchen, so doesn't get as much opportunity.

Sadly, this is true in nursing homes across the country, our elders are often just forgotten about.