Volunteer brings out best in people

LPN from Factoryville specializes with memory care patients at Allied Services.
By Rich Howells rhowells@scrantonedition.com Reporter/Photographer

Aristotle once said that, “Memory is the scribe of the soul.” If that is true, then Joy Yunko is not only a skilled licensed practical nurse, but a prolific author as well.

Joy Yunko, a licensed practical nurse and program specialist for Allied Services Skilled Nursing & Rehabilitation Center’s Alzheimer’s Unit, puts her arm around one of her patients, Shirley Norris. Yunko considers Norris more of a friend than a resident.

Yunko serves as program specialist for Allied Services Skilled Nursing & Rehabilitation Center’s Alzheimer’s Unit and has been with Allied for 23 years. Her duties involve setting up programs, such as arts and crafts, readings, music, and physical therapy, that will help patients suffering from Alzheimer’s and dementia regain and retain their memories and improve their quality of life whenever possible. She doesn’t see this as work, however; it is more of a calling to her.

Her grandmother, who took care of both she and her brother, became ill when she was only a teen. Already a candy striper at the age of 13 at the former West Side Hospital, it became Yunko’s turn to take care of her, and when word spread in the neighborhood about what she was doing, other area elderly came to her for help when they needed it. By 1981, she was working for Allied Services, and by 1988, she was assigned to the Alzheimer’s unit.

“My philosophy on life is, ‘Life is what you make it.’ If I can do something to ease somebody’s burden, to make life easier for them, I think that’s what God put me on this Earth to do,” Yunko explained.

As she has been married for 35 years with three daughters and five grandchildren, it’s no surprise that her approach to helping her patients is quite motherly, fostering a loving trust with them that is much more akin to family than a work relationship.

“In a way, they’re kind of like my children. I know if they sneeze wrong. I know if they cough wrong or if they just don’t look right,” she said.

“They’re amazing at what they can do. With a little tender loving care and a little bit of patience, I can get someone to actually do artwork. I can get somebody to actually sing or do a puzzle, but it takes a lot of patience. I have wonderful staff that works with me too, so I don’t do it all by myself. I have a team. It’s just a team family around here,” she continued.

This team, which has been made up of the same staff for years so that patients can get used to familiar faces, currently cares for 61 patients, and Yunko is sure to check on each one every day.

“If  I’m off a day and I come back, Alzheimer’s or not, they’ll say, ‘Where were you?’ If a nurse is trying to render a treatment and they say, ‘Leave me alone! Don’t come near me!’ the minute they see me they say, ‘Oh, it’s you!’ Somebody will come in the room in a bad mood and I’ll look at them and say, ‘Good morning, beautiful,’ and I get the biggest smile. It’s the simple things.”

Her experiences throughout her career have allowed her to develop programs that tap into the root of long-term memory by using activities that utilize visual and environmental cues, allowing the patients to remember the past naturally, on their own terms. She encouraged one woman who would barely talk to use watercolors, and as she painted, they discussed what she was creating and why. As she painted pink flowers and a bright blue sky, the woman recalled that she had a beautiful garden where the sky was always blue. She called the finished painting, “My Garden.”

“They’re very special people. At some time in their life, they were just like you and I, contributing to society and the community and raising families…I get to see another side of them. There are some rare moments where I get to see the true person inside and it’s just amazing,” she said.

“I don’t call them my residents; they’re my friends. Because I’m dealing with Alzheimer’s and dementia, I become their mother; I’m their teacher. They are my passion. Someone has to care for them. Somebody has to love them,” she added.

Yunko’s work doesn’t stop at the end of her shift, either. When her department needs extra funds for anything the residents may need, she has organized bakes sales and even helped put together a cookbook to raise more money. She has also spent over 15 years fundraising for the Alzheimer’s Association of Northeast Pennsylvania.

In addition, she has also held fundraisers in conjunction with Electric City Harley Davidson for St. Joseph’s Center in Scranton and raised money for Ronald McDonald House of Scranton and individual children affected with terminal illness for over a decade.

Whether on or off the clock, Yunko plays many roles in her life; all of which she does gladly. While the rewards of her efforts seem to always be for others, she says that the results of her work are what make everything worthwhile.

“It’s a very rewarding job. It comes with the good and the bad. When they flash back to a bad time in their life and sit back and they cry, I use validation therapy. Wherever they are is where I go. I can be their mother, their neighbor, their cousin; whoever they need be to be at that moment, that’s who I am.”