Nursing home reformer & Sunday School teacher, Norma Atteberry demonstrates principle of giving back

Apr 22, 2009
CAROLYN NICHOLS
Newswriter

INSPIRATION Norma Atteberry’s Aunt Gladys (right) was her inspiration for getting involved as an advocate. Courtesy photo

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MILTON (FBW)—Norma Atteberry watched her parents live and preach the principle, “Every person must give back.”

Taking the words to heart, Atterbury, a member of First Baptist Church in Milton, chose a career in nursing and now serves as an advocate for nursing home residents and their families.

In 1983, Atteberry’s beloved Aunt Gladys, who lived across the street from her family, suffered a stroke and was told she needed to be in a nursing home. In regular visits to the facility in Pensacola, Atteberry said she observed lethal shortcomings in care given her aunt.

“There was not a day that I was there that I

did not see something wrong,” she said. “It was horrendous.”

ATTEBERRY

Atteberry took note of her aunt’s untreated 105 degree fever, a kinked urinary catheter, and other failures. Aunt Gladys’ roommate, also recovering from a stroke, boldly spoke out about what needed to be changed at the home. In revenge, the staff often sprayed pesticides around her bed to aggravate her severe allergies.

Although Aunt Gladys was moved to another

facility within three months, she died before a year passed. The experience changed the focus of Atteberry’s career.

“I said, ‘God, if you give me a chance to make a difference in this, I will,” she told Florida Baptist Witness.

PARENTS Al and Florence Harrison, Norma Atteberry’s parents. Florence battled Parkinson’s disease for years. Courtesy photo

A few years later, Atteberry was asked by Gov. Bob Martinez to serve on Florida’s Long Term Care Ombudsman Council which assists in resolving issues with long term care facilities and makes recommendations regarding policies, regulations and legislation. She served on the council 13 years, and also became active in the National Citizens’ Coalition for Nursing Home Reform, which she now serves as president of the Board of Directors.

Atteberry’s mother and father, John E. and Florence Harrison, lived long enough to appreciate their daughter’s efforts on behalf of the elderly. Her mother, who suffered with Parkinson’s disease, was able to remain at home until her death in 1995. Her father, who died two years later, had told his daughter: “More people should help older people. So many help younger people, but they forget that frail elderly people need help.”

Far from forgetting, Atteberry, a mother of five and grandmother of “five and half,” remains an advocate on the national stage for compassionate long term care. Although she concedes perfect nursing homes are “few and far between,” there are some where the residents are happy and their care “phenomenal.”

“If you ask an older person, they will always say they’d rather stay home, but if they have to go, it should be to a place that is home-like with loving care givers,” she said.

WHITE HOUSE TOUR Norma Atteberry was on a White House tour during a D.C. visit for a NCCNHR Board Meeting. Courtesy photo

Atteberry and the NCCNHR staunchly oppose the nursing home lobbies’ well-funded efforts to de-regulate the industry. She is closely watching Florida Senate Bill 1562 that would eliminate many inspections of local facilities.

“This would be devastating to residents if this passes,” she said.

The NCCNHR is a “consumer voice” in legislatures instead of just an industry voice when laws are being written and passed, she said. It educates families about the rights of nursing home residents and maintains a library of material of use to both residents and families. All the information is available on the organization’s website www.nccnhr.

Growing up in Pensacola

Atteberry grew up in Brownsville Baptist Church in Pensacola. She said her first memory of church is meeting for Sunday School with the other five-year-olds on the lumber pile outside the back door. The cinderblock building housed a church that grew so quickly that “people had to meet where they could find a spot,” she said. She was baptized there, taught nine-year-olds in Sunday School when she was 14, and served as assistant Training Union director as a high school senior.

In college, Atteberry considered teaching or a full-time Christian vocation, but said she sensed a “definite call of God” into nursing, and graduated in nursing from University of West Florida.

Along the way, she met Thomas Atteberry “in church” while he was in the Navy flight training. They have been married 46 years, the last 31 years living in Milton, where the children grew up at First Baptist Church where Atteberry has taught five-year-olds for more than a decade with her co-worker, Connie Spencer.

The family’s busy and comfortable life was altered in September 2004 when Hurricane Ivan destroyed their house. Atteberry, however, regards the storm and its aftermath as “very much a learning experience.”

“You see reports on the news [after a storm,] but you don’t know how much you appreciate people helping you until you’ve been there,” she said.

A Florida Baptist Disaster Relief kitchen at her church provided “the best beans and peas I’ve ever eaten,” and the workers and other church groups that cut down trees and ministered to the residents gave “love, caring and support like I’ve never seen.”

After three months without electricity and several months in a travel trailer in their yard, the family home was rebuilt with an additional ten feet of foundation.

The Atteberry’s experience with Disaster Relief provided a new avenue for “giving back.” Both Norma and Tom are now trained DR volunteers, and worked in food preparation in three trips during the Florida Baptist Convention’s response following Hurricane Katrina.

“It all goes back to being raised where your mom and dad teach you to give back,” she said. “This is true for everybody—and especially for Christians.”

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