NORTH HAVEN, ME — Day one of the Mission’s 2020 Annual Island Eldercare Retreat. Host Sharon Daley, RN — who is also the Mission’s Island Health Services Director — with guidelines to help manage the discussions and presentations. The writing on the paper pad says:
Working Arrangements
Captain Storey King aboard ‘Moonbeam.’
FRENCHBORO, ME — Island Health Services Director Sharon Daley, RN sends this photo of “Captain Storey [King] and Rosie picking up Sharon Daley, Steward Jillian, and [Island Outreach Director] Douglas Cornman after a lovely night on Frenchboro.”
Moonbeam, shown here, is the Mission’s temporary replacement boat while the Sunbeam V is out of the water for its routine major refit. While Sunbeam V Captain Mike Johnson oversees the Sunbeam work, Sunbeam Engineer Storey King uses his Captain credentials and skill to pilot the Moonbeam for the rest of the Sunbeam crew.
November 2019
Recovery off the mainland’s a little different
By Courtney Naliboff
While life on one of Maine’s 15 unbridged islands can seem idyllic, the reality in geographic isolation, with a finite number of fellow islanders, can lead some residents to seek out drinking or drug use as a “common denominator.”
[S]everal organizations exist to connect islanders to recovery services.
Maine Seacoast Mission…which has offered medical, educational and spiritual support to island communities since 1905 – including access to counselors who work with addiction issues – is one such organization.
With telemedicine equipment, including a specialized examination camera and other diagnostic devices, the Mission allows people to see primary-care doctors and counselors.
“I do work with Acadia Family Center, which is in Southwest Harbor, and MDI (Mount Desert Island) Behavioral Health, and both of those work with addiction issues,” says Sharon Daley, a registered nurse and the mission’s director of island health. Daley is available for family members and patients to talk to, has assisted physicians with drug-testing patients taking suboxone – a medication prescribed for people in recovery from opioid use – and has hosted counseling sessions aboard the Sunbeam V, the mission’s 75- foot vessel, currently in dry dock for repairs.
Learn more about the Mission’s Island Health services
Mission Island Health Services Director Sharon Daley gives islander a flu shot.
NORTHEAST HARBOR, ME — Getting to the islands without the Sunbeam V has been a challenge in many ways. We have met those challenges with a lot of help from many people. This includes help with transportation (boats, planes or cars), and with places to stay, phones, internet use, and numerous other things.
How I worked flu clinics recently on six islands is a good example. The flu clinics happen when people get there, not by appointment.
For example, before or after going out to haul. If I am there, I am available. With no Sunbeam I set up at town offices, libraries, and homes.
One day I held flu clinics on four islands. Isle au Haut island was the first. Without my office aboard the Sunbeam I used the IAH town hall for the clinic.
After leaving IAH on the Mission’s temporary replacement boat, Moonbeam, we went to Frenchboro, setting up a clinic in the library.
From Frenchboro we went in the afternoon to Great Cranberry. I was met by someone who drove me to on home visits for people unable to come to the clinic. After that, we set up for a flu clinic at the Cranberry House.
The large turnout meant I was going to run out of flu vaccines, and I still had one island to go. After many phone calls to MDI Hospital, Carroll Drug Store, and the Mount Desert Nursing Association I found more vaccines. This was a team effort of people willing to think outside the box and go out of their way to be helpful.
Of course, I located the vaccines while I was on an island and the vaccines were on the mainland. But we figured out how to get it from Southwest Harbor. Storey King, the Moonbeam Captain, dropped me on Islesford and headed to Southwest Harbor, picked up the vaccine, and brought it back to me.
We held a very successful evening flu clinic, helped again by islanders who posted information, signed in people, fed me a wonderful dinner, and put me up for the night.
Because of the storm that night power went out and boats were canceled. But as the wind died down a bit, a lobsterman headed to NE Harbor let me catch a ride back to the mainland.
Written by Island Health Services Director Sharon Daley, RN
Moonbeam returns from work. Steward Jillian is standing on the boat. Island Health Services Director Sharon Daley is standing on the dock.
NORTHEAST HARBOR, ME — Moonbeam is the Mission’s interim boat while the Sunbeam V undergoes its routine major refit. To carry on their work on Maine unbridged islands, the Sunbeam crew relies on Moonbeam and Captain Storey King to carry them to the islands and back. Sometimes Sunbeam crew members go to work using other means of transportation such as island mail boats and airplanes.
In this photo, taken just days ago at Northeast Harbor, ME, Island Health Services Director Sharon Daley, RN (purple coat), and Steward Jillian (standing on Moonbeam), are returning from a island telemedicine trip.