At 79 years old, Nancy Longhibler of De Soto has been having more and more trouble taking care of her basic physical needs. Advanced arthritis and peripheral neuropathy make walking – even with a walker – difficult, showering problematic and getting around in public places exhausting.
She turned to St. Louis HELP (Health Equipment Lending Program), a nonprofit organization that lends home health equipment to anyone who needs it.
She was at the organization’s newly opened Crystal City office on Saturday morning, choosing a wheelchair and a shower grab bar to borrow at no charge for as long as she needs them. After filling out a brief lending agreement, she and her neighbor and caregiver, Maria Dunn, headed out to go shopping.
“This will be a big help,” Dunn said. “She wants to stay in her home as long as possible, but I worry about her falling. She needs stuff like this to be safe.”
HELP was founded in 2008 and serves St. Louis and St. Louis and Jefferson counties, as well as surrounding counties. The Crystal City office, 302 Bailey Road, opened July 10 and already is stuffed with wheelchairs; walkers; crutches and canes; bath and toilet aids; hospital beds; specialty chairs; standers and more.
“We’re so excited to be able to help this community,” said Bev Stuart of Festus, who, with her husband John, runs the Crystal City office. “There is such a need here and in surrounding counties.”
Stuart said she hopes local residents in need will utilize the free service. She also encourages those with equipment that’s no longer needed to donate it so others can use it.
An equipment drive is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 13, at the Crystal City office. Donations will be accepted anytime between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. that day. Regular drop-off hours are 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays; other times may be arranged by appointment.
An appointment is required to pick up equipment; call 314-339-3311 to schedule one. The person who needs the equipment isn’t required to be at the appointment; a relative, friend or caregiver may pick up items for the person.
How it works
Anyone with medical equipment or supplies is encouraged to donate items to St. Louis HELP. They will be issued a tax letter for the retail value of the items donated.
The equipment goes to the group’s headquarters/warehouse in Olivette, where it is logged into the system before being repaired or refurbished and then sanitized by a crew mostly made up of volunteers.
The items are distributed at no charge to those who put in a request. Every borrower signs an agreement releasing HELP from liability and pledging to return the item when it is no longer needed.
Laura Singer, founder and executive director of St. Louis HELP, said the hardest thing for those donating items often is letting go.
“Sometimes we get tears and a lot of emotion,” she said. “We have to be patient and be good listeners.
“And then, the hardest thing about the distribution end is to get people to believe that it’s free; there are absolutely no strings.”
There are costs to the program, such as overhead at the warehouse and the Crystal City center, cleaning supplies, transportation costs, replacement parts and pieces, salaries for its one full-time and six part-time employees.
Those costs are covered through monetary donations from corporations, organizations and individuals, and through grants from the St. Louis-Jefferson Solid Waste Management District and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. The Jefferson Foundation recently awarded a $5,000 grant to the program to help get the local office started.
The reasons for needing home health care equipment are varied. Some, like Longhibler, have an increasing need for assistive devices as they age. Children grow out of their chairs and standers and crutches. Accident victims and those who have had surgery need a lot of assistive help at first, then less and less as they recover. Conversely, those with progressive conditions need little assistance at first, but more as their condition worsens.
“For a lot of people, having this equipment means the difference between staying in their own home or going to a hospital or rehab center or nursing home,” Stuart said.
Singer said she sees the program as the perfect intersection of circumstances.
“You have people who need this equipment, and other people who have it and no longer want or need it, but don’t know where to get rid of it,” she said. “We all want to reduce the amount of waste in our landfills.
“This meets all three of those needs. It’s a win-win-win.”
Nice porch decoration
Stuart, 69, who works part time as a file clerk at Sapaugh Chevrolet Buick GMC in Herculaneum, said she and her husband started volunteering with HELP when it was formed in 2008.
“I worked with Laura (Singer) at the Thomas Jefferson School, and we stayed friends even after she left there,” Stuart said. “One day she called me and said she had this idea for a project to loan medical equipment to people so they could stay in their homes. I said, ‘Well, that’s awesome! So what do you want John and me to do?’”
The Stuarts became Jefferson County liaisons for the project, which resulted in some comedy.
“It was pretty much all word-of-mouth, and our house was a drop-off point,” she said. “We’d come home and there’d be a wheelchair by the basement door or a bedside potty chair on the porch.”
The two collected donations from Jefferson County, taking them to Singer’s Kirkwood home and, later, to the warehouse facility. They often brought back refurbished items to lend to local residents.
“I kept saying to the founder, ‘We need a place like this so desperately in Jefferson County,’” Stuart said.
When the funding was awarded and the 2,400-square-foot Bailey Road property (formerly L&R Furniture) became available for lease, they jumped.
“We are hoping we can grow and the service will get bigger as word gets out,” Stuart said. “There’s another space next to us, and we hope to eventually expand into that.”
The Stuarts, volunteers for nine years, now receive a $500 per month stipend for running the Crystal City office.
At this time, the number of donations from Jefferson County far outweigh the number of people seeking help, Stuart said.
“That is just so surprising,” she said. “I know that’s lopsided; I know there’s a real need here. We can lend for one day or a lifetime or anything in between – it depends on what the person’s needs are.”
How to help
While donations of equipment have been coming in pretty regularly, Stuart said getting bigger items to the office is problematic.
“A lady called and said her brother had passed away and she had a hospital bed that had only been used a short time,” Stuart said. “She told us we could have it if we could come and get it, and I didn’t have anyone who could do it at that time, so we lost it.”
She said HELP would welcome volunteers who have a pickup or van and who would be willing to be on call to pick up larger items.
“We’re talking an hour a month or something like that,” she said. “It doesn’t have to be a big commitment of time.”
For more information or to become a volunteer, call Stuart at 314-339-3311.
To donate to the organization, mail a check to St. Louis HELP, 1640 Andrew Drive, St. Louis, 63122; or donate with a credit card over the phone at 314-422-0030. Paypal donations may be made on the St. Louis HELP website at www.stlhelp.org.
Companies are encouraged to establish gift-matching programs, and individuals may incorporate a planned gift in their estate planning.
St. Louis HELP charges no fees for its services and receives no state or federal funding.
“We’re not a sexy program,” Singer said. “We don’t have a fancy ribbon logo. So getting funding is tough to do.”
All donations are tax-deductible.