STONINGTON, Me — The Mission’s 74-foot steel-hulled Sunbeam V is hauled in annually to keep ahead of its structural integrity and cosmetics. Think of it as the boat’s annual physical. While in dry dock last year the Sunbeam V had a new bow thruster installed, giving the boat better sideways motion when approach certain harbors and docks.
Generally the dry docked Sunbeam V has its paint — top and bottom — renewed. Any rust developed anywhere since last year is sanded and painted. The overhaul work is done or supervised by Captain Michael Johnson and Engineer Storey King.
Island Health director Sharon Daley, and Island Outreach director Douglas Cornman continue their island community work, traveling on other boats, ferries, and planes.
BAR HARBOR, ME — Mission Director of Island Health Sharon Daley hosts an annual elder care conference in support of the elder care work taking place on 14 different islands. Three of the larger islands have small aging in place elder homes. Soon there will be an elder home on a fourth island.
These homes allow elders to remain on the islands they love, continuing to be and important part of their communities.
Meanwhile, the small islands learn ways to support their elders and caregivers.
These films from the Maine islands of North Haven and Islesboro show the importantance of these aging in place elder homes to island residents, their families, and the community.
Aging On An Island – Voices from North Haven, Maine
Telehealth Offers a Vital Resource to Maine’s Island Residents A telemedicine platform and bi-monthly visits from the Sunbeam give the isolated residents of several Downeast Maine islands a lot more than just telehealth. By Eric Wicklund
August 22, 2017 – The success of telehealth has always been closely tied to the idea of bringing healthcare to those who have problems with access.
To the 700 or so residents of several islands off Maine’s Downeast region, that success is tied to a video link with an onshore clinic and the 75-foot, steel-hulled vessel that makes twice-monthly runs up and down the coast.
It’s all part of a “big jigsaw puzzle” for healthcare, says Sharon Daley, RN, a Missouri native who launched the nonprofit Maine Seacoast Mission’s telehealth program some 17 years ago and now directs the multi-faceted program out of Bar Harbor.
“Going off island is extremely expensive,” she says. “So we have to make do with what we have.”
Daley’s network begins of the Sunbeam. Equipped with a telemedicine lab that includes virtual visit technology, it sails out of Bar Harbor twice a month, each three-day journey tracing a route that might take it to Matinicus – at 21 miles out, it’s the most distant island, and only accessible at high tide, and home to about 75 full-timers – Isle au Haut and/or Frenchboro and a few others islands are visited with less frequency). Appointments are scheduled with island residents in need of medical service, and time is left for walk-ins as well. All of these services are free.
BAR HARBOR, ME – National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) clinical director Greg Marley will offer a presentation on suicide prevention from the Mission Telemed/ZOOM room at the Colket Center on July 27th at 4 pm. Director Marley’s presentation will be viewed on Islesford and Great Cranberry Island.
Margaret Snell, Island Health Associate says Marley’s “presentation is geared toward the island communities, especially leaders or those who are likely to respond to a person in crisis (EMT, clergy, etc).”
NAMI is the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to building better lives for Americans affected by mental illness.
For more information contact Director of Island Health Sharon Daley, RN or 287-5097.
Bar Harbor, ME — Island Health director Sharon Daley sent this July 3, 2017 note with a photo by Island Outreach director Douglas Cornman: “The Sunbeam took this dental team to Frenchboro last Friday. It is Dr Oh who runs Caring Hands of Maine Dental Center of Ellsworth, Maine.
