Proclamation 6529

By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation

Since 1885, countless men, women, and children have been provided care in their own communities and homes by the staff of Visiting Nurse Associations. These associations are in 422 urban and rural communities in 45 States and provide home health care to more than 1,500,000 people. The associations are voluntary in nature, independently owned, and community based. They offer a wide range of services, including hospice care, personal care, homemaking, social services, nutritional counseling, specialized nursing care, and occupational, physical, and speech therapy by registered nurses.

Historically, the care provided by Visiting Nurse Associations has enabled many individuals who are chronically ill or disabled to remain in their homes. Such care provides a setting that is familiar to them and is characterized by the physical and social support of family, friends, and loved ones.

Today, as an increasing number of people are being released from acute care settings and returning to their communities in need of complex home health assistance, Visiting Nurse Associations have been quick to respond. Whether caring for a low birth-weight baby, assisting a person recently released from the hospital following surgery, or administering life-sustaining procedures, Visiting Nurse Associations have proven to be critical care providers.

The associations adhere to high standards of quality and provide personalized and cost-effective health care and support, regardless of a person's ability to pay. They are enthusiastically supported by the communities in which they are located, and their resources are regularly enhanced by the services of volunteers and the donations of community members.

In recognition of the increasing need for home health care, and the significant potential of Visiting Nurse Associations to provide this care, the Congress, by House Joint Resolution 484, has designated the week beginning February 14, 1993, as "National Visiting Nurse Associations Week" and has authorized and requested the President to issue a proclamation in observance of this week.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the United States of America, by the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim the week beginning February 14, 1993, as National Visiting Nurse Associations Week. I urge all Americans to observe this week with appropriate programs and activities.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this eighteenth day of February, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and seventeenth.

WILLIAM J. CLINTON