winter 2007 - Concord Academy

ALUMNAE/IPROFILESNancy Jaicks AlexanderClass of 1951Compassionate Care forthe IncarceratedCONCORD ACADEMY MAGAZINE WINTER 2007BYNANCYSHOHETWEST’84T H I S I S S U E• Nancy Jaicks AlexanderClass of 1951• Susanna HortonClass of 1965• Helen Haskell HobbsClass of 1970• Kabir SenClass of 199512“No one knew whether you got this froma door handle or bathroom germsor drinking glasses. Guards wore big yellowgloves when they brought in food.”It was 1985 and Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, the noted scientist andfounder of the hospice movement, had a favor to ask of Nancy JaicksAlexander ’51.Twelve men with HIV had been isolated from the rest of thepatients at the California Department of Corrections’ primary prisonhospital for men. Kubler-Ross wanted Alexander to talk with theprisoners, to draw on her background in counseling and hospice work.Alexander was a member of Kubler-Ross’s teaching staff whenthe Centers for Disease Control first designated HIV a disease in themid-1980s. No one yet knew how it was transmitted or what groupswere at risk.When Alexander, who lives in Berkeley, spoke to her husbandBob about volunteering in the AIDS unit, the retired architect wasconcerned about the fifty-mile trips to the prison and said he wouldsupport the idea only if he could accompany her. Each of the Alexanderswas assigned an inmate to counsel. At the end of one year, Bob’sinmate died, and Nancy’s inmate had one request: “Why don’t youstart a support group for men with AIDS?”It was a difficult time to enter the arena of AIDS counseling.“This was before the HIV drugs we have now,” Alexander explained.“So when a man was diagnosed, he would most likely become sickwithin the first three months and often be dead three months after that.The patients were treated like lepers. No one knew whether you got thisfrom a door handle or bathroom germs or drinking glasses. Guardswore big yellow gloves when they brought in food. There was openhomophobia and paranoia and fear.” In her earlier hospice training,Alexander had learned to follow safe practices when working in anykind of medical setting, and she said that faith in the importance of herwork counteracted any fears she might have had regarding illness.Over the next several years, Nancy Alexander ran a support groupfor men with AIDS. “A total of 273 men attended our group during thattime,” Alexander said. “Some came for only one session; others stayedin the group for three, four, five years. I offered support, but Bob was asignificant father figure to them. He was a true iconoclast, and the menall looked up to him. He had been a bit of a troublemaker himself, andthey recognized that in him.”In 1989, the hospital chaplain confided to the Alexanders hisdream of having a hospice at the medical center. When prison adminis-