History of Benzie Community Services/Benzie Home Health Care

Father Bissot

In the fall of 1973, Father Bissot of St. Ann’s Church started looking for help for some of his parishioners.  He asked the head of the Social Service Committee to find legal aid and social service agencies active in the community.  No legal aid (other than criminal cases) or any social service agencies active in the community could be found, other than the State Public Welfare Office.

By this time, there were several families who needed help, so Father Bissot asked Fran Garvin to contact Catholic Community Family and Children Services of Traverse City.  Through this agency, we were able to obtain legal services from an attorney on their advisory board and social workers who came to work with families, Paul Reilly (marriage counselor) and Joe Griggs (alcohol counselor).

On June 27, 1974, Father Bissot, Rev. Brucher, Rev. Cornell, Father Schlotterbeck, Mrs. Wooten and other interested people met with Clement Veeser, Executive Director of Catholic Community Family and Children Services, and Paul Reilly to discuss how we might provide additional professional help in the areas of family counseling and problem preventative services in addition to those provided by the county.

The decision reached at this meeting was to try to accept the proposal of Mr. Veeser for the beginning of an outreach counseling service.  To establish this program, the cost would be approximately $2088 for the year.  The Community Family and Children Services agreed to underwrite the amount of $1088, leaving us the sum of $1000 to raise.

St. Ann’s Church, the Congregational Church, and the Methodist church each volunteered $100 and St. Philip’s Church $200.  The Mother Child Study Club of Frankfort gave $100 and $30 was received from interested individuals.   St. Ann’s Church decided it was a necessary program and gave the additional sum to get the program started.

Father Bissot then sent a letter to all the clergy, doctors, social workers, probate judge, prosecuting attorney, school personnel, school nurses, police department, sheriff’s office, hospital and others advising them that we were offering this service to the people of Benzie County who needed help.

As a result of this, John Berlin, the prosecuting attorney, called a meeting on November 14, 1974 to discuss the problems facing the people of Benzie County and the available resources.

Another meeting was held in December of 1974 at the Court House, which was attended by Jim Coates, Joe Griggs, and Stewart Saint from Catholic Community Family and Children’s Services of Traverse City; Scott Johnson, Health Department and Director of Office of Substance Abuse Services, Cadillac, Michigan; Dr. Boyd, Traverse City State Hospital; Ruth Kielow, Child Guidance of Traverse City; Mrs. Ted Franklin, Alcoholics Anonymous; Judge Huft of Probate Court; Don McIntyre, Superintendent of Frankfort Schools; Mr. Danforth, Superintendent of Benzie School District; a representative from the Third Level Crisis Center of Traverse City; Mr. Kirchner, representing Michigan Department of Social Services; John Berlin, prosecuting attorney; Alice Hollenbeck; Fran Garvin, St. Ann’s social service committee, and other interested citizens.  As a result of this meeting, a steering committee was set up, consisting of Alice Hollenbeck, a licensed social worker; Don McIntyre, superintendent of Frankfort schools; and John Berlin, prosecuting attorney.

Doris Marshall, Alice Hollenbeck, Bonnie Rodgers

After this meeting, Alice Hollenbeck and Fran Garvin attended a Crystal Lake Township meeting and they very generously let us have the use of their lower level as an office for 1 year without charge.  In 1975, we became known as Benzie Community Services (HELPLINE) and became a nonprofit corporation “to meet the social and personal needs of the residents of Benzie County.” The first board meeting was held on 9/25/75 with Bill Bacon as president and Alice Hollenbeck as executive director, a position she held until the fall of 1983, when she retired and Marsha Case became director.  Marsha was the director until the fall of 1987.  Doris Marshall served as director until May of 1998, succeeded by Bonnie Rodgers.  Mary Dykstra became the newest executive director in March of 2008.

Benzie Community Services has been supported by the Benzie Community Chest since its inception in 1975.  That first year was most important, since their support would give credibility to the agency.  The next necessity for the HELPLINE was a telephone.   A personal check for $200 came from a generous summer resident.  Soon afterward, private foundations were contacted and offered support.  All the services were done by volunteers.  HELPLINE began to function first with a compilation and description of social services available to Benzie County residents.   It was clear from the beginning that other than Michigan Department of Social Services (DSS), 7th Day Adventist for victims of fire, Elberta Methodist Church for used clothing and local churches for emergency food and fuel, all other services were “outreach” from Traverse City.  For unmet needs, we would need to be “creative”.  Hence began volunteers to provide transportation to those who had none, telephone reassurance 7 days a week for residents who lived alone and space for used household items, such as beds, appliances, kitchen utensils, etc for those in need and those who needed to donate.

In September, 1977, money became available to the Commission on Aging of Benzie County to develop a home health program for senior citizens.  Since the COA had no employees, Sister Maureen of St. Ann’s and a commission member suggested they contract with Benzie Community Services to develop such a program.  The COA sent Alice Hollenbeck to a Visiting Nurse Association conference in Minneapolis to learn what needed to be done.  The Home Health Care program was started for residents over 60, under contract with the Commission on Aging, employing 3 nurses and 3 home health aides.  All were part time employees.  The program had a nurse supervisor and Alice Hollenbeck served as administrator and social work consultant.  An advisory committee was established with community members who were experienced professionals and patient representatives, including a physician, medical social worker, pharmacist, pastor, the director of Munson Home Health Care and a family representative.  Each served as a referral source and lent their professional expertise. When local radio station WBNZ began, free radio time was secured to advertise services.

A warehouse was started in 1978, thanks to Terry Argue, who loaned the agency a corner of his warehouse.  There were donations from Betsie Bay Furniture, Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore, and the general public.  Eventually Benzie Area Christian Neighbors incorporated this into their program.

In June, 1978, the agency was asked to contract with the Community Mental Health Board to provide crisis intervention coverage after hours, a service mandated by the State Department of Mental Health for each county.   This was primarily a telephone service for reassurance, alcohol abuse, suicide prevention, listening, etc.   The calls went into Paul Oliver Hospital and the phone number was relayed to the person on duty through a beeper system.  The Crisis staff members were paid counselors, most of whom had regular jobs in the helping field.  The 24 hour crisis intervention continued until January, 1985, when CMH had a large enough staff to incorporate the program into its own office.

From January of 1979 to 1982, Munson Skilled Home Health Care contracted with Benzie Community Services to use our skilled registered nurses for their program in Benzie County as a cost saving, more efficient delivery of service.  Federal regulations terminated this.

Since then, we have evolved into a home health care service agency, providing non-medical, in-home service to seniors to enable them to remain as independent and engaged in life as possible.  We also offer family caregiver respite support and can work in conjunction with Munson Hospice.