Bertha Huffman has a keen appreciation for Meritan, a nonprofit health and social services agency.

Twice a week, a Meritan nurse or physical therapist comes to her Bartlett home to care for her husband, Don, who has diabetes and other illnesses.

Meritan’s registered nurse Kristy Franks and physical therapist Ramiro Pabalate are among those making the house calls.

“They have really been good at taking care of him,” Bertha said.

Pabalate walks around the house with 81-year-old Don, who has been unable to walk unassisted for more than a year, she said.

Well-deserved praise has been lavished on hospital workers who’ve manned the front lines against the deadly COVID-19 pandemic.

But the field staff for agencies like Meritan also have been putting themselves at risk at catching the highly contagious virus.

Their tasks are essential and often cannot involve any social distancing.

“Our job is to be hands-on,” said Pabalate. “That’s very difficult. If a patient has paralysis we have to be hands-on to transfer the patient from bed to chair. We use belts around the waist so we can walk them.

“A lot of it is teaching patients how to get into the shower, how to button shirts, put shoes on. We are always hands-on. That’s the main problem we are experiencing,” Pabalate said.

Franks, one of Meritan’s three full-time registered nurses, said the patients are typically “very susceptible and very compromised.

“With a lot of them, you can’t be six feet away,” she said. “They depend on us coming in the house and taking care of them, hands on.”

Tipping Point: Seniors play vital role in healthy community

The 59-year-old Meritan now employs about 200 people and serves about 1,800 people in Shelby, Tipton and Lauderdale counties.

The organization comprises nurses, physical therapists and occupational therapists, social workers, home-aid workers and a support staff.

“And we support people of all ages, from children in foster care to the elderly in senior programs,” said Meritan president and chief executive Melanie Keller, a nurse herself. “From cradle to grave.”

The agency operates on a yearly $12 million budget with revenue sources that include fees for service, Medicare, TennCare, state contracts with the Department of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and Department of Children Services, and a social services block grant.

Elton Frazier is case manager for Meritan’s program called Housing Opportunities for People with AIDS.

Even before the pandemic hit in March, many of Meritan’s clients “were already living a sheltered life because of their diagnosis,” he said. “They have to be more careful now.

“God forbid they catch this COVID-19 stuff on top of all that. It could take them out. They really have to be on their P’s and Q’s health-wise.”

One of Meritan’s overarching missions is to help Memphis-area residents stay in their homes and out of such institutions as hospitals, nursing homes or assisted-living facilities.

“We try to prevent patients from going to the hospital,” nurse Franks said.

“Anytime an elderly person goes to the hospital, when they get discharged they come out weaker,” Franks said.

“Now with COVID-19, they are more at risk.”

The Huffmans are retired from their masonry contracting business. They have lived in the same Bartlett home for more than 35 years.

“I would like to stay in our house as long as we can,” Bertha said. Meritan has been playing a “very important” role.

Now the agency would like to expand even more the types of services it provides. Keller recently reached out to the Health Department to offer to be a testing site for COVID-19.

Meritan moved its headquarters just over two years ago from 4700 Poplar in East Memphis to 345 Adams, at Danny Thomas. The agency spent about $2.5 million renovating a long-vacant, 17,000-square-foot facility that once housed a laboratory.

The new office is close both to the growing vibrancy of Downtown Memphis and where many of the city’s homeless population spends time. Memphis Union Mission, which serves the homeless and is undergoing a large expansion, is a block away from Meritan.

“We’ve got a heavy homeless population,” Keller said of the neighborhood, adding that Meritan could help provide COVID-19 testing for the homeless.

“We wanted to open that up not just for drive-thru (testing); I asked about walk-up testing,” she said.