Norville returns home as HLRC physical therapist

For the first time in it's nearly 40 years of operation, the Hi-Line Retirement Center has its first ever, fulltime physical therapist to the joy of staff, residents and said therapist.

"This is my second week back and it has been good," Carmen Norville said. "It is really nice to be back in town as well. It's nice to be home where I know so many people and so many people know me and you just get that good community feel."

Norville is the daughter of Loring's Pete and Carol Lumsden and graduated from Whitewater High School in 2001. Norville got her physical therapy degree at MSU Billings in 2008 and has been practicing physical therapy for the past nine years in Whitehall, Mont.

Norville said that her husband, Matt, started working for the Lumsdens which offered her a chance to practice physical therapy closer to the place she was born and raised. The couple – who have been married for nine years - are currently living in Malta with their children, daughters Ellie and Aubrie, four and two-year's old respectfully.

Norville said she got her start in the medical field back when she was going to high school as she was a CNA and got her first training at the Phillips County Hospital. Norville said that while she was obtaining her undergraduate degree in pre-med at the University of Montana she continued to work as a CNA. In her second year of studies at the U of M, Norville changed her major to physical therapy.

"What I liked doing was helping people move better," Norville said of the change in curriculum. "Now I do that all the time."

HLRC Administrator Dwayne Murray said that for many years the retirement center contracted with the Glasgow hospital who would send a physical therapist to Phillips County once a week. Once the Phillips County Hospital got a fulltime physical therapist, that therapist would come to the HLRC to work with the residents.

"But the facility has never had the luxury of having its own physical therapist," Murray said. "The response from our residents has been tremendous."

Norville is joined in the HRLC's physical therapist department by assistants MiKayla Farrar and Helen Voegel. Norville said she is happy to be back in Phillips County helping people she grew up with.

"I am helping my friends and friends of my parents and their parents," she said. "You get that good community feeling everywhere, but it just feels so welcoming to be here."

Whether Norville is going to resident's rooms or the residents are coming to her and her staff in the PT room, the motto is exercise and restorative care.

"MiKayla and Helen are busy all of the time," Norville said. "Our goal is for everyone to feel better and it is going well."

Another venture Norville is working on is opening a physical therapy clinic in one of the HLRC apartments. She said the clinic will be separate from the HLRC, but she will be able to see HLRC residents at the clinic as well as the general public. Norville said the clinic is still a work in progress, but is nearly finished and within a week or two she will get the PCN more information in the coming days.

"Most of my experience has been with out-patients, but I am excited to take on the challenge," Norville said of the HLRC.