[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 72 (Monday, June 12, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E976]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page E976]]
                         RECOGNIZING CELI ADAMS

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. LYNN C. WOOLSEY

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, June 12, 2000

  Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Celi Adams, a 
life-long resident of Petaluma, CA, who for the past 12 years has 
operated a program that provides free training for families and friends 
who struggle daily to provide home care for gravely ill loved ones. Ms. 
Adams was recently selected as a 2000 Community Health Leader by The 
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. She is one of only ten individuals 
nationally to be selected to receive the nation's highest honor for 
community health leadership, which includes a $100,000 award to 
continue her work.
  Ms. Adams, a former cancer nurse, first recognized the need to 
educate people around quality home care when she was part of a group 
caring for a close friend with AIDS. After this experience, she quit 
her nursing job and co-founded Home Care Companions in 1988. Initially 
operated out of her mother's spare bedroom, the agency offers a free 
18-hour course that trains family members and friends of patients 
suffering from acute illnesses in basic home-care nursing skills. The 
course provides instructions on topics such as pain management, 
nutrition, bed care, and physical therapy, as well as educates both 
patient and care giver on how to navigate an often-complex medical care 
system and how to put their legal affairs in order. Since its 
inception, more than 2,000 people have participated in the training.
  Originally targeted to AIDS care givers, Ms. Adams' program has 
expanded in recent years to include training on cancer, congestive 
heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Home Care 
Companions' training techniques have been taught to nurses in Japan and 
more recently to medical professionals in Africa. In 1997, they 
assisted in the development of an Australian AIDS home-care training 
program. Future plans for her agency also include training sessions on 
caring for frail elders and an outreach effort to help other groups 
start training programs in their own communities.
  Borne out of her own personal experience with a dying loved one, Ms. 
Adams created a program that has touched the lives of many in her 
community and beyond. I am thrilled that Celi Adams was selected for 
this well-deserved award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and I 
urge my colleagues to join me in congratulating her on this wonderful 
achievement.
  Mr. Speaker, as one of her nominators aptly put it, ``She didn't do 
this for fame or glory. She did it for the best reason of all, because 
people in crisis need her help.''

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