This photo taken at the Advisory Council meeting shows (L to R) Shoshona Smith (HAAC Development Coordinator), Elsie Flemings (HAAC Executive Director), Wendy Harrington (Mission Service Program Director), Margaret Snell (Assistant to Mission Director of Island Health) and Gabe O’Brian (HAAC Community Health Coordinator).
Photo: Health pros head toward the Sunbeam for the “Meet Your Providers” event. (Courtesy Doreen Willett, Executive Director Island Connections www.islconnections.org)
BAR HARBOR, ME — Tuesday, April 10, the Sunbeam eased away from it’s home dock in Northeast Harbor on a special telemedicine trip that turned out to be more special than anyone imagined.
Island Health director Sharon Daley, RN and Island Outreach director Douglas Cornman have earned islanders’ trust in matters of health care. Over the years the two Sunbeam crew members have served as — in director Sharon Daley’s words — “a bridge from islands to health providers.” Quite often directors Cornman and Daley find themselves explaining to islanders the services of certain mainland health providers.
Then why not host a “Meet Your Provider” event aboard the Sunbeam? Mainland providers could introduce themselves to islanders. Islanders could ask health providers direct questions about their services. So the Sunbeam’s first stop Tuesday morning was Great Cranberry Isle (GCI). Eight mainland health providers met the Sunbeam at GCI ahead of interested islanders who would come to the event from GCI and Islesford.
That’s when the serendipity kicked in. While waiting for islanders, “The providers were so busy talking to each other and networking. Most of them didn’t really know each other or what each other did,” said Sharon Daley.
Photo: Island Health director Sharon Daley (foreground) and Island Outreach director Douglas Cornman (background near staircase) listening to islanders and health providers in Sunbeam salon. (Courtesy Doreen Willett, Executive Director Island Connections www.islconnections.org)
Out of that networking came the first inkling of the providers seeing first-hand the relationship Sharon and Douglas have with islanders. “That insight helps providers integrate what they do with the Sunbeam’s work,” Cornman said.
Coupled with their own networking, the health providers learned where their own services were unique, where services might overlap, and where services are lacking. Plus, said Cornman, “Islanders were able to put a face to the agencies,” he and Sharon talk about. “This will help islanders,” said the Island Outreach director, “feel more comfortable if and when they decide to use agency services.”
Elise O’Neil took part in the Sunbeam “Meet Your Provider” event. Ms. O’Neil, a registered nurse, is Mt. Desert Nursing Association Nurse Administrator. O’Neil, too, thought the event “was a wonderful networking opportunity” for MDNA, which provides home health care to Islesford, Great Cranberry, and other islands. O’Neil said in an email, that her health organization is looking “forward to collaborating with the Seacoast Mission and others. There is so much potential to build upon what the Seacoast Mission has already accomplished,” O’Neil said.
The April 10 Sunbeam telemedicine trip was special for another reason. Acadia Family Center in Southwest Harbor had its executive director, Dr. Dan Johnson, aboard at the “Meet Your Provider” event. But, Dr. Johnson stayed on board, traveling with Sharon on the Sunbeam for the three days (April 10-12).
On Isle au Haut, Frenchboro, and Matinicus, Dr. Johnson offered islanders his know-how with a talk on “Forming Habits: Both Good and Bad,” including Johnson’s exploration of addiction.
“The rest of the trip,” Johnson said, “was a great chance to see how valuable the Sunbeam is to the outer islands. It is amazing to watch islanders come to the boat — almost as a floating community center.”
Maine Seacoast Mission is grateful to the all of the health providers invited to take part in the April 10 “Meet Your Providers” Sunbeam event:
ROCKPORT, ME — Sunbeam Captain Mike Johnson greets Ann Backus of Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. In April 2017 Ms. Backus traveled aboard the Sunbeam to Frenchboro and and Isle au Haut to give fishermen a presentation on Lobstering Safety and Occupational Health Presentations.
Backus’s presentation included use and care of survival suits, and how to make reboarding ladders, and other quite useful information for keeping fishermen alive and well.
Mike and Ann were both at the Maine Fishermen’s Forum trade show at the Samoset Inn, Rockport, ME.
BAR HARBOR, ME — Meet Maine Seacoast Mission’s Sunbeam crew at the Maine Fishermen’s Forum, March 1-3, Samoset Resort, Rockland, ME. According to the Fishermen’s Forum web site, “This is the largest event of its kind in New England – one dedicated to offering fishermen, clammers, lobstermen, aquaculturalists and other related seafood industry participants an opportunity to meet on neutral ground with fisheries managers, state representatives, Congressmen and Senators.”
The Sunbeam table is part of the Forum Trade Show in the Spruce Head Room.
Since its founding in 1905, a Maine Seacoast Mission boat has always served the islands. The Sunbeam V is 75-feet long with a beam of 21 feet and a seven foot draft. The boat has state-of-the-art telemedicine equipment and a salon that serves as a meeting place for fellowship, meals, and meetings. The Sunbeam also sometimes hosts weddings and funerals.
Dale Libby, 8. He and his brother, Hayden, 10, are the only year-round students at the one-room school on Matinicus. Credit Tristan Spinski for The New York Times
The New York Times Life on an Island: Silence, Beauty and a Long Wait for the Ferry On remote islands off the coast of Maine, small bands of residents stay through the long winter. They embrace the emptiness and a frontier sensibility. By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE – FEB. 23, 2018
[T]he 75-foot vessel Sunbeam, which is operated year-round by the nonprofit group Maine Seacoast Mission, is seen as a lifeline, especially in winter. Often breaking the ice in the coves and harbors it visits, the Sunbeam provides a communal gathering place for islanders, who go aboard for meals and stay for the fellowship.
[Island Health director Sharon] Daley has been the Sunbeam’s nurse for 17 years, and has built up relationships with many of the islanders.
She makes home visits on the islands and sees patients for routine procedures like flu shots. Using specialized equipment, she also conducts telemedicine sessions from the boat with doctors from the mainland, tackling physical ailments and mental health issues, including depression, addiction and even marriage counseling.
Douglas Cornman, another Sunbeam crew member, is the boat’s director of island outreach and its chaplain. He tries to combat the islanders’ feelings of isolation, publishing an anthology of their creative writing, counseling island students on the transition to mainland high schools, and officiating at weddings and funerals.
