JANESVILLE — Sherry Gensler’s eyes mist up as she shares how she’s had to say farewell recently to long-time clients in their last moments together.
“It was sad to tell a client that this would be the last shot that I was going to give him. He just broke down sobbing and hugged me. You get to develop such a great relationship with people after working with them for 20 years,” Gensler said.
The registered nurse in Rock County’s Community Support Program is currently the county’s longest-serving employee. She retires this Friday, Feb. 2.
Gensler said it took a year to decide that it was time to retire after more than 43 years working for Rock County.
“I’ve loved my career. I love advocating and helping people live their best possible life,” Gensler said.
Nadine Westby started working for the county’s behavioral center in 2001 and has been Gensler’s CSP supervisor since 2004.
“Sherry is so organized and very proactive, we’re going to really miss her,” Westby said.
CSP is an outpatient treatment program for those living with severe and persistent mental illnesses. It helps clients gain and maintain independence in daily activities like banking, housing and if possible securing employment, and advocates for clients.
“Housing is a huge issue in Rock County,” Gensler said. “Getting more adult family homes and community based residential facilities could help clients live independently.”
Gensler has spent time with clients in non-nursing roles by taking them shopping, and helping them to sign up for benefits or access other medical services.
“A lot of people come here, and they don’t have a primary doctor or haven’t been to the dentist in 12 years. Helping better their overall health is something I’ve really enjoyed doing,” Gensler said.
“She has a hard job sometimes because she has to administer injections or meds to people who don’t want to take them,” Westby said. “But she’s great at it because she’s so good at developing relationships with all clients. They love her.”
After graduating from Parker High School in Janesville in 1979, Gensler began her journey with the county as a medical transcriber in the medical records department in 1980.
She did that for two years before becoming an administrative assistant for several Rock County departments including the Residential Alcohol & Other Drug Abuse Program, Janesville Community Support Program, Community Services Center, Janesville Counseling Center and Adolescent Day Services Program.
Gensler took a job as a child-care worker at the Rock County Youth Home and Juvenile Detention Center in 1992 before earning an associate degree in nursing from Blackhawk Technical College in 1993
She began working as a registered nurse at Rock Haven, the county-owned nursing home, in 1994 and then earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Viterbo University in La Crosse in 1998.
“I love helping people, so I thought it’d be a great career,” Gensler recalls. “I can’t tell people enough how many opportunities there are as a nurse. People think just because they don’t like blood that they can’t do it but there’s so many different avenues that people don’t think of, such as with an insurance company for example. I just think nursing is a wonderful career.”
From 1999 to 2004 Gensler worked as an infection control practitioner and educator at Rock Haven and the Health Care Center, and then worked as a registered nurse at the Rock County Juvenile Detention Center and at the Janesville Community Support Program. Since 2010, she has worked as a Community Support Program registered nurse for the county.
The county’s Community Support Program is open five days a week, with medical technicians to deliver medications in the evenings and on weekends. Westby said Gensler has offered to deliver medications when a medical technician wasn’t available, just to make sure clients get it.
“Sherry is extremely dependable. She never, ever calls in. She doesn’t take sick days. She’s leaving the county with the maximum amount of sick days that you can have, which is nice because you can roll that over into health insurance when you retire,” Westby said.
Gensler has even come in during snowstorms to work and deliver medications when no one else could make it. She said working with clients was her favorite part of the job.
She said she takes pride in helping clients stay out of hospitals, institutions and legal trouble, which is not only terrible for the clients but also costly for taxpayers.
“Our clients are so misinterpreted at times, even by professionals. So, by advocating for them and having them be treated respectfully is so important to me. It’s not their fault that they live with mental illnesses,” Gensler said.
The Rock County Board of Supervisors recognized Gensler with a resolution during its Jan. 24 meeting. It honored Gensler for providing high quality care and advocating for residents with severe and persistent mental illnesses.
Gensler said she looks forward to spending more time with her family and traveling around the U.S. with her husband, Greg.
“Life goes by in a blink of an eye, so I try to tell young employees to be smart. Working for the county has been great and they have amazing benefits,” she said.
