Many people make a home health agency work. There are the social workers who sit behind desks decorated with family photos and computer screens, indirectly making things happen for patients. There are the therapy coordinators. There are the doctors who fill out prescriptions for therapy evaluations. And there are the ladies at the front desk who hand out paychecks every two weeks. To them, patients are simply names on paperwork and voices on phones. They care, but they don't know. They have no idea what it is like to be out there "in the trenches" with patients who invite us occupational therapists into their homes and become real to us as we help and watch them heal, physically and mentally.
Each of these patients had lived full lives prior to their diagnoses and had stories to tell and lessons to share, from which the stories in this book were born. In the Trenches provides a full picture of what truly helps a person heal: knowing that they are seen and heard and realizing they still have something to give to others, even while they fight to heal.
So come with me along those winding back roads and into homes where the real battles are fought and where the true heroes live.
