Kennebunkport Public Health Director, R.N. Alison Kenneway looks over Health Council minutes from the early days as the town marks the 75 anniversary of the town nurse program. Tammy Wells photo

KENNEBUNKPORT – How many home visits, dressing changes, blood pressure checks, B12 injections and well-being checks have there been at Kennebunkport Public Health since 1947?

Whatever the figure, it all adds up 75 years since the first Kennebunkport town nurse took up the duties, and today’s nurses at Kennebunk Public Health – a longtime service known by virtually everyone as the “Town Nurse” – just keep rolling along.

What is the best thing about being the town nurse?

“I feel I am really helping my community,” said R.N. Alison Kenneway, who has been the town nurse for more than six years, and lives in town. “I love to meet and work with people, and being a nurse that makes house calls, I really get to know the people in my community.”

Alison Kenneway, Kim Noble and Stacey Corsie are the Kennebunkport Public Health nurses. The town nurse program turns 75 this year. Courtesy photo

Everyone who lives in town in need of a nurse can call Kennebunkport Public Health.

Come early May, Kennebunkport Public Health is planning a big celebration – likely with cake – to mark 75 years of caring for the community. Additional events are planned.

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May 1 marks the day that Florence Poirier came to Kennebunkport as the first town nurse in 1947. She stayed until 1961. There have been 17 town nurses since, some for a couple of years, some for much longer, like the late Judy Barrett, who started in 1983 and retired in 2017.

These days, Kennebunkport Public Health is led by Kenneway. Stacey Corsie and Kimberly Noble share a part-time nursing position.

It is a much-loved service that endures and adapts to change, said Town Manager Laurie Smith.

In the current fiscal year, the budget for Kennebunkport Public Health was $169,000 and is fully supported by taxpayers, said Smith. The department also administers general assistance – a separate budget. Residents are generous, donating to help those in need, and helping buy supplies, equipment or provide training funds. “The public is very supportive of the public health nurses and the work of the department,” said Smith.

“The nurses help people in our community from birth to the grave,” said Smith. “They assist the residents as well as their families as they struggle with the challenges life throws at each of us. Whether that is financial assistance, medical advice, monitoring health conditions, wellness checks, mental health visits, new baby care, CPR lessons, or even dealing with dementia, the public health nurses cover it all.”

The 1947 minutes from the Kennebunkport Health Council record the arrival of the first town nurse, Florence Poirier. Tammy Wells photo

Smith said the public health department meets the changing needs of the community. “When they started (in 1947) the focus was on more baby care, but as our population has changed it now means more elder care,” she said. “The biggest pivot the department has probably seen is addressing the issues of the pandemic. Our public health department has been integral to conveying public health education, keeping our municipal staff operating and most importantly, the COVID testing that has keep people safe and working.”

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Residents are often referred by their primary care physician. People drop by the office at the Kennebunkport Police Department weekday mornings from 8 to 9:30 a.m. for dressing changes, blood pressure checks, injections, and the like, said Kenneway.

In 2020, the town report shows Kennebunkport Public Health nurses made 855 home visits, and 1,204 health supervisory visits and calls. Residents made 596 office visits in that first year of the pandemic. In 2019, there were 1,292 home nursing visits, 892 health supervisory visits and calls, and residents made 401 office visits.

Plus, there are foot care clinics, a Welcome Baby program, a medical equipment loan closet,  activities with the Parks and Rec Department, Southern Maine Agency on Aging, and others, including a monthly “Your Health Matters” book group with Louis T. Graves Memorial Public Library. The town nurse works with the American Red Cross to host blood drives at the American Legion Hall, takes part in disaster preparedness, organizes community coat, hat and mitten drives for needy families, administers general assistance and associated supports, backpack programs for kids, Secret Santa, and more.

There have been many town nurses in Kennebunkport since the program began in 1947, and the longest serving was Judy Barrett, from 1983 to 2017. She passed away in 2019. Courtesy photo

It is believed to be the only town program of its kind still operating, though the cities of Bangor and Portland have public health departments.

Smith remembers when there were more – when she worked in the Boothbay and Boothbay Harbor region in 1988, there was a public health nurse that provided services to the two towns, but visiting nurses became the norm, and the town program faded away.

Adam Hartwig is the public health district liaison with the Maine Centers for Disease Control.

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He said Kennebunkport Public Health, under the direction of Kenneway, and Barrett before her, has been a wonderful resource to the community and the Maine CDC, and the entities have worked together on many matters.

“This partnership has become more important during the pandemic, when Alison and her staff worked to secure Abbott ID. Now testing for the community provided vaccinations, and wellness checks on some of the area’s most vulnerable residents,” Hartwig said.

Kennebunkport Public Health has its roots in the Kennebunkport Health Council, which began its quest to bring a town nurse to Kennebunkport in 1943. Eventually, on May 1, 1947, it came to fruition under the state’s Enabling Act, aimed at communities with populations less than 6,000. Minutes show that the state would pay $1,100 for half of the nurse’s salary and transportation, with the town contributing $1,100, plus all office costs.

Former Kennebunkport Health Council member Cindy Clement said she vaguely remembers Miss Poirier – she was in grade school at the time.

As a health council member, she said, she felt like she was helping. “The nurses work very hard, and we were a support system for them,” said Clement.

The Health Council established a Welcome Baby program in 2019, an initiative brought forward by Bridget Broydrick, who joined her mother, longtime member Norine Burns, on the council. As a new mother at the time, Broydrick said she wanted to do something to benefit others like her.

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“The enrollment issue at Consolidated School was a hot topic at the time, and we thought this could be a way to thank young families for choosing to raise their children here,” said Broydrick. Her second daughter was born last fall, and Broydrick learned some hospital support services were unavailable, due to the pandemic. “For the first few weeks of Sinead’s life, Alison would come by with her baby scale to weigh her and allay my fears that she was eating enough,” said Broydrick. “The Welcome Baby program serves to introduce Alison and her services to new families.”

Welcome Baby packs, given to families of all new Kennebunkport babies, include a handmade hat, baby wipes and other necessities, literature, gift cards and more.

“I love meeting new families and seeing the new babies,” said Kenneway.

To help mark the 75th anniversary, Kennebunkport Public Health has been working with Mary-Lou Boucouvalas, library director at Graves Memorial Library, on special events, including a January program on scams with Kennebunk Police officer Candice Simeoni that proved so popular it returns Feb. 23.

Boucouvalas said the two entities cross-promote events and clinics, and have hosted Color Me Calm events, book deliveries to shut ins, CPR and disaster relief classes, and monthly programs aimed at combatting overdoses episodes.

Kenneway has been a nurse for 33 years and said she enjoys her role in Kennebunkport and reflected on the town nurse role.

“I enjoy our office hours allowing people from the community to come ask questions or receive some type of medical care that they need or want,” she said. “We are teachers and teach our community. We are patient advocates and help our seniors navigate the medical world as best we can. I like to brighten up our senior citizens’ days, by a home visit just to make sure they are doing okay, and let them know we are thinking of them.”

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