Thursday, July 01, 1999
Aiding aged was second career for retiring nun
BY RAY SCHAEFER
Enquirer Contributor
DELHI TOWNSHIP — Sister Phyllis Lambert was not looking for a second ca reer when she finished 31 years as a teacher in 1982.
But countless elderly people are glad she found one when she came to the Tristate. Sister Lambert retires today after 14 years as founder and director of the Eldermount Adult Day Program on Delhi Road.
“I get great satisfaction in seeing people improve in their mental and physical ability once they come into a program like this,” said Sister Lambert, of Green Township. “Over these 14 years I've had a fantastic staff and fantastic support from the Sisters of Charity community and their services.”
About 28 people take part in Eldermount's program. When it started in 1985, there were four clients.
“When I decided to get out of education, I looked to see what the needs of the church were,” Sister Lambert said. “It was obvious — the needs of the aging population. It wasn't that they weren't being met, the numbers were increasing faster than in the past. People were living longer.”
Helen Maly of Delhi Township has taken her husband, Harry, to Eldermount two days a week for a little more than a year. She said she'd miss Sister Lambert.
“Sister understands people and their problems. Everyone is going to miss her very much,” Mrs. Maly said.
Running Eldermount isn't the only thing Sister Lambert has done.
She helped form the Southwestern Ohio Association of Adult Day Services in 1986 and developed state standards for the Ohio Association of Adult Day Services. She was state president from 1991-93.
“I admire the work she has done. She started at the very beginnings of adult day services,” said Kathy Baker, marketing and development director at Eldermount, who will succeed Sister Lambert. “She has built a model program.”
Sister Lambert started her second career by earning a master's in gerontology in 1983 from Miami University. She took a job at a nursing home — and found a career she had never considered. She said caring for the elderly involves much more than preparing meals.
“There's been more and more emphasis on trying to satisfy the person's physical, psychological, social, spiritual and nutritional needs,” Sister Lambert said.
Once she began contacting Catholic and Protestant churches, hospitals and social workers in connection with starting Eldermount, she found the program's niche — people who did not require nursing-home placement but needed help during the day and who would benefit from a group setting.
“The majority were of the mind of, "If it was open now, I would go,'” Sister Lambert said.
Eldermount, which is near the College of Mount St. Joseph but is not affiliated with the college, was the second such facility in Greater Cincinnati, and at least four others have since opened. It is open from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, and Sister Lambert said clients come two to five days a week.
Other than maybe taking a trip to Ireland, she hasn't made any retirement plans.
“I haven't had time to work on any,” she said.
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