CHARLTON – “It’s very rewarding work. This is not just a job to me – this is a vocation.”
Michael D. Turpin is talking about running
Charlton Manor Rest Home and Assisted Living, which he and his wife, Deborah, own. He said she helps with the accounting.
“It’s like a private home – this is not institutional at all,” he said, as he gave The Catholic Free Press a tour of the old house, pointing out a nicely furnished porch, then religious and antique pictures adorning the walls.
“This is treated like their own home,” he said. Residents “would never have to leave. Rest homes provide more care than assisted living, and I do both. … Especially when it comes to the end of life, we do a very good job … with people on hospice.”
Residents’ families become friends with the home’s administration and staff, Mr. Turpin said. The manager, Debra Fitts, contacts the families by text message, and they can call his cell phone. (So can residents, who usually request little things like candy.)
The house, built in the late-1800s, was once part of the Charlton Poor Farm, owned by several communities or towns, Mr. Turpin said. Before welfare was available, people could live and work there to get back on their feet, he said.
In 1962, when the farm was basically closed, Carmen and Caroline Iandoli bought part of it and took in people needing care, he said.
Ten years ago, he bought it from Mrs. Iandoli.
“The minute I pulled into the driveway I said, ‘I’m buying it,’” he recalled. “I had never heard of it – and I’d been in the (nursing and rest home) business for decades.” He had ideas about what he could do with it.
What’s he’s done is create a place where people say they want to stay.
“As a person who lives here, I love it,” Theresa Dolan told The Catholic Free Press.
What does she like about it?
“Everything.” The food, “the people that live here, the people that work here.” At age 74, she’s planning on staying for life.
Mrs. Fitts said her grandfather and grandmother came to the manor in May from their apartment. He died in June.
“He had the best end-of-life care he could have had” with JHC Hospice, of Jewish Healthcare, coming in, Mrs. Fitts said. Her grandmother saw that and now “she’ll tell you, ‘This is where I want to live; this is where I want to die.’”
People can remain there, Mr. Turpin said, and explained where he’s coming from and how he operates the manor.
“I’m Catholic,” but the home takes residents of any or no religion, he said. He and his family belong to St. Mary Parish in Shrewsbury. Mrs. Fitts’ grandmother, a native of Laos, is Buddhist.
Mr. Turpin said he attended what was once called Worcester Central Catholic Elementary School, and St. John High School and Assumption College, graduating in 1991.
He said he prepared for his nursing home administrator’s license at St. Francis Home in Worcester, under Sister Jacquelyn Alix, a Little Franciscan of Mary, whose order then ran the facility.
He then administered a nursing and rest home owned by New England Deaconess Association, working with the president, a Methodist minister, he said. In the late-1990s through the early-2000s, he oversaw Covenant Health’s Mary Immaculate Rehabilitation and Nursing Home in Lawrence.
Now he’s anticipating celebrating his 10th anniversary at Charlton Manor with a special meal and cake for residents and staff.
The manor is a place to care for the whole person.
“We want to bring people up to their highest level of independence,” Mr. Turpin said. For “alot of the elderly, their best friend is the television set. That’s sad.” At the manor, efforts are made to get them involved with other residents, staff and their families.
“I have a lot of high-functioning, independent people who would be homeless” if they weren’t here, including veterans who were once homeless, Mr. Turpin said.
He said they had Mass and other religious services and the rosary before the coronavirus pandemic, which has not killed or sickened any of their residents or staff. Once the pandemic is over, he wants volunteers to come do things with residents. He’d like some to take residents out to church now.
He also spoke of concerts, games, crafts, movies and reading material offered at the home.
“When someone goes to the hospital, I visit them,” he said. “I’m their advocate. If we accept somebody here we would keep them to the end of life,” bringing in additional care if needed.
The 15 staff members include certified nursing assistants, and people to cook, keep house and do activities with residents, Mr. Turpin and Mrs. Fitts said. A doctor, nurse practitioner, nurse consultant and a psychiatric team visit.
Residents pay according to their level of care, starting at $3,000 per month, not nearly the $7,000-$15,000 per month they might pay elsewhere, Mr. Turpin said. The home takes private pay, Medicaid for rest homes and long-term care insurance.
“If they run out of funds … they get on a form of Medicaid,” which pays the manor up to $70 per day for what their social security doesn’t cover, he said. That doesn’t nearly cover expenses; money from private-pay residents makes up the difference, he said. Residents can keep their own room even if their financial situation changes, and even those on assistance can have a private room if one is available.
Many people come with nothing, and “we” buy what they need, Mrs. Fitts said.
Mr. Turpin said the home has even paid to give a dignified burial to those without pre-paid funeral arrangements.
He said the manor is usually full - with 32 people - and he always has a waiting list. But he’s willing to work with those interested in coming.