LITTLE COMPTON — Few institutions have woven itself more firmly into the fabric of the community than the Little Compton Wellness Center, which this year celebrates 100 years of service to the residents of the town and the region.
"Our goal is to focus on the four pillars of healthy aging — body health, the brain, nutrition, and a sense of community," said Shirley Hardison, president of Friends of the Little Compton Wellness Center.
"All our services and programs try to fit into those four categories."
This weekend, Saturday, September 23, the Wellness Center and the community will join hands in sponsoring the second annual charity golf tournament and doubles tennis round robin at the Sakonnet Golf Club, and a family three-mile walk and 10/20 mile bike ride. All proceeds after expenses will go to the Center.
The weekend events will be preceded by a free film screening and discussion of “Being Mortal,” at 5:30 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 21, upstairs at the Little Compton Community Center.
(See details for the weekend events and the Thursday film screening below.)

Center activities
Apart from providing vital services to the community over the years, the Center has distinguished itself by continually adapting to changing needs.
The Center serves not just Little Compton, but Westport and Tiverton as well. "We serve approximately 2,500 people in a year's time, which works out to be about 85 people weekly," said Ms. Hardison,
About 13-17 people participate daily in an adult care program, she said,
"We offer flu shots" through the nurses's association, she said. Nan Haffenreffer, a Little Compton resident and long-time nurse/administrator at the Osborn House (Wellness Center) at 115 East Main Road, comes in monthly.
"People come in and say we want a program, for example, in men's health, so we bring in a doctor. He's been here twice," said Ms. Hardison. It covered men's health generally — the prostate, sexuality, erectile dysfunction, men's cardiac, psychological, and bone health.
The Center also had a program on women's health.
'We get calls from people who want someone to help serve or care for someone in their home, and we'll refer that person to Stay-at-Home in Little Compton," a local organization that promotes the idea of remaining at home.
The Center's grounds include a "Meditation Garden," with a landscaped path, bordered by benches, and surrounded by a decorative fence that prevents wandering. It's used by Alzheimers patients, among others. A garden writing group meets there, Ms. Hardison said, as do yoga classes.
The Center operates a Food Bank, that serves about 50 families in Tiverton and Little Compton who come in weekly, Ms. Hardison said.
A treatment room is used for podiatry visits and massage.
"We try to provide the vast majority of our programs free," she said.
"We operate a quilting club, and donate quilts to a women's shelter. What has happened is that the community identifies us as being an adult day care center, and that is limiting for us. We are trying to broaden the community's perception of what we offer here," Ms. Hardison said.
Today's services, says a Center brochure, include restorative yoga, exercises of different kinds, Tai Chi, a base for a group called "Little Compton Quilters," and (believe it or not) kickboxing.

One hundred years later
It all began with the 1918 influence epidemic 100 years ago, which prompted what was then known as the Little Compton Public Health Nursing Association, to appeal to the Navy in Newport for hospital beds for the stricken.
"The Navy responded by supplying 36 hospital beds and four medical corpsmen to help set up an emergency hospital in the Grange," says the Center in a document it has prepared detailing its history.
Once the epidemic had run its initial course, a full-time nurse was employed to give follow-up care, and as the years progressed a full-time public health nursing service was established in the Brownell House.
The focus during these years, says the Center, was to provide "all persons in the community with high quality home health care and with education to promote healthful living and the prevention of disease."
The kind of care was limited, however. It was rooted in nursing care and support services, not primary care, even though at times it was housed in doctors' offices (a Dr. Taylor on Meetinghouse Lane in Little Compton in about 1980 and a Dr. Rupert von Trapp in Adamsville in about 1985).
Physician services, in the forms of orders, were carried out by registered nurses.
In 1987 the services moved to a new building at 115 East Main Road in Little Compton, to what became known as the Nancy Brayton Osborn House, and which in 2011 changed its name to the Little Compton Wellness Center.
The nurses' association itself morphed and merged through organizational changes and is now known as the Visiting Nurses Association of Southern Massachusetts (VNASM), and bases itself in Fall River..
At one time, said Ms Haffenreffer, "five nurses worked out of the building. It was a great, group collaborative." An adult day care operated there, she said.
But then about 2010-2011 things moved away from that, she said. "With electronic records available, the clinicians aren't in the building anymore." The nurse's moved their base from the East Main building.
The Center explains the transition.
"As handheld technologies and mobile diagnostic devices advanced and improved, remote independent care flourished, obviating the need for a central location for the assisted nursing staff. As a consequence, activity at the Nancy Brayton Osborn House declined. Principal use of the Center transitioned to predominantly adult day services."
The adult day care activity has been taken over by St. Elizabeth's Community Cornerstone Program
Despite all the changes, Ms. Haffenreffer said, "the Center is a wonderful asset. It's not easy being where they are. People aren't just walking by."

• Weekend events:
The golf event is $900 for a golf foursome (includes green fees, cart, buffet lunch, gift bag and cocktail awards reception). The doubles tennis round robin is $40 per person, is limited to 16 teams, and includes court time, balls and a cocktail awards reception. The family wellness three-mile walk or 10/20 mile bike ride is $30 for an individual or $50 for a family (includes T-shirt, raffle prizes and refreshments). For more information, contact Marsha Riccardi at 592-0400 or Nan Haffenreffer at 682-2100, ext. 1470.

• Film "Being Mortal:" A free film screening and discussion of “Being Mortal,” will take place on Thursday, Sept. 21, at 5:30 p.m. at the Little Compton Community Center (upstairs). Sponsored by the Visiting Nurse Services of Newport and Bristol Counties (VNS) and the Little Compton Wellness Center, it is based on the best-selling book by Dr. Atul Gawande and explores the hopes of patients and families facing terminal illness and their relationships with the doctors, nurses and family members who care for them. A guided discussion will follow the screening. Refreshments will be served.