Our History
A passion for caring that has never wavered.
VNACJ, the region’s premier provider of community health services, began with a meeting of volunteers on June 24, 1912 at Brookdale Farm, the Lincroft, NJ estate of Geraldine L. Thompson.
The young organization set out to improve prison conditions and achieve a more humane approach to public assistance. In the early years it successfully campaigned for a tuberculosis hospital (Allenwood Sanitarium), and was appointed agent for the NJ Tuberculosis League.
From the beginning, the healthcare needs of women and children were a paramount concern. In its first decade, the agency completed a study of mentally handicapped children in the public schools; it launched child welfare programs and established mobile dental clinics and mobile mental health clinics. Public health nurses were added to the social work staff, and the agency established a county district health office.
In 1918 the agency adopted the name Monmouth County Organization for Social Service (MCOSS). However, the agency has always been a voluntary, nonprofit organization and is not a branch of county government.
VNA Nurses in the 1930s.
Accomplishments of the second decade included the addition of three satellite health centers and a continuing focus on services for children: well-child conferences, nutrition and parenting programs, and establishment of a children’s shelter.
The '30s brought a training program for student nurses, nursery and play schools at the Hartshorne Health Center in Belford to assist working mothers, and an expansion of services for handicapped children. The agency also assisted Fitkin Hospital (now Jersey Shore Medical Center) in establishing a social service department.
During the war years, MCOSS spearheaded a pioneering medical-dental plan for veterans. In the late '40s the agency participated in organizing the Cancer Society, Heart Association and Cerebral Palsy Treatment Center in the county. The agency’s program to provide health care for migrant workers received national recognition.
In the following decade, the agency participated in the Salk vaccine testing program and gave field training to graduate nursing students from Rutgers and Columbia Universities.
In 1949, Eleanor Roosevelt accompanied her friend Geraldine Thompson to the site of the agency's new Red Bank Health Center, which was dedicated in 1950. Among those reviewing the plans were agency Executive Director Winona Darrah, far left; Mrs. Roosevelt, center; Mrs. Thompson (in the white hat); and Monmouth County Freeholder Director James S. Parkes, far right.
In the '60s, the agency and the Monmouth County Board of Freeholders worked out a plan for countywide bedside nursing care. An active Southern Monmouth Auxiliary opened the doors of the Thrift Shop in Manasquan in 1960.
The high quality of nursing, the aging of the population, the growing costs of hospital care and advances in home care technology led to explosive growth in home care services in the '70s and '80s. In 1988, the agency expanded to serve the people of Middlesex County through acquisition of the Visiting Nurse Association in Middlesex. In an effort to make the organization’s identity clear in both Middlesex County and Monmouth County, the agency’s trustees voted in December, 1993 to adopt the name VNACJ. (A visiting nurse association is a freestanding, community-based, nonprofit organization governed by a volunteer board of trustees, providing intermittent care in the home and helping to support itself through fund-raising.)
From the beginning, VNACJ was concerned with the welfare of children. In this photograph from the late 1920s, Grace Mott, RN instructed a new mother in baby care.
Over the years, the agency has had only six presidents. Geraldine Thompson was succeeded by Louise Bodman (1952-54), who was followed by Laura Harding (1954-70), Catherine Carton (1970-74), Ellen N. Adams (1974-77) and Judith Stanley Coleman (chairman, 1977-present).
Significant developments of the '80s and '90s included the founding of the hospice program; growth of the rehabilitative services department; and establishment of primary care centers staffed by nurse practitioners. In 1988, the hospice program was certified by Medicare, and now serves more than 700 terminally ill patients and their families annually.
VNACJ moved into the 21st century at the leading edge of home care technology. Nurses and therapists now chart their patients’ progress on laptop computers, enhancing communications among professionals and giving nurses more time to interact with their patients. In 2003, to promote increased interaction with the Middlesex County communities, the agency established a Middlesex County Board of Trustees.
From mobile health clinics in the '20s, services to migrants in the '40s, hospice care in the '80s, primary care in the '90s, expansion of school-based clinics in 2000 to the introduction of advanced home care technology in the 21st century—the venturesome spirit of that early group of volunteers continues to infuse an organization which has consistently been in the vanguard of community health in this nation.
For more information about VNACJ services and programs, visit www.vnacj.org or call 800-862-3330.
