Monkey see, monkey do ... just about everything

When Judi Hindman needs an extra pair of hands she doesn't have to look very far; Katie, the smallest member of her Weston family, is usually eager to help. At a foot and a half tall and weighing 5 pounds, the 20-year-old capuchin monkey has proven brains can be more useful than brawn.

''If I'm heading into the dark basement with a basketful of laundry and say 'sun,' Katie will turn the lights on for me," said Hindman, who usually walks around the house with the monkey on her shoulder.

Hindman, 57, has been Katie's foster parent for four years through the program Helping Hands: Monkey Helpers for the Disabled. The monkeys are trained to help quadriplegics by taking on such everyday tasks as fetching something from the fridge, pouring a drink, inserting a DVD, scratching an itch, even brushing their owner's teeth.

''The monkeys have been trained to generally be the human hands when no one is with the patient," said Hindman.

Though Katie went through the training program, and knows 200 commands, she was never placed with a quadriplegic. She has been serving as a Helping Hands ambassador, attending charity and educational events. It was through a neighbor who had attended a Helping Hands event that Hindman learned about the program, which relies on volunteers to serve as foster parents to the monkeys that are retired or don't have other assignments.

The monkey's cage stands on a raised platform in front of a large bay window in the Hindman's newly renovated kitchen (''the contractor said I've never designed a kitchen around a monkey," she said). She happily swings from the window seat to the kitchen table, then back to her cage to ''read" a book, unzip some zippers, and play with her doll. By capuchin monkey standards, Katie is middle aged, with an expected life span of 30 to 40 years.

Helping others has always come naturally to Hindman, who attended Boston University with the intent of going into the field of medicine. She volunteered for a year in the spinal cord injury unit at University Hospital after graduation, but had a change of heart and decided on a career in social work. She received her master's degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1973.

''I was raised in the '60s -- like 'burn your bra' kind of '60s," said Hindman, recalling the days of protests.

Working for the state in the '70s, she helped pioneer efforts to deinstitutionalize the developmentally delayed. Later she worked for the Perkins School for the Blind and, after earning a master's in public health at Boston University, in healthcare marketing. For the past 20 years she has run a personal fitness training program.

One of Hindman's favorite hobbies is landscape design, so when one of her fitness clients invited her to learn about apiculture -- the science and art of raising honey bees -- Hindman was intrigued.

''I tend to anthropomorphize things a little too much," said Hindman, who added that she's always been fascinated with bees, especially in how the queen runs the show.

Hindman and her husband, Frank Odell, took a class given by the Norfolk County Beekeepers Association three years ago, purchased a hive, and this past fall extracted their first batch of honey: a 30-pound yield that they bottled and called Monkey Business Honey. Proceeds go to Helping Hands: Monkey Helpers for the Disabled.

A photo of Katie is on the label.

For more information on Helping Hands Monkey Helpers visit www.helpinghandsmonkeys.org or call 617-787-4419.

TIPS FOR PARENTS --Shaina Martinez was at her wits end three weeks ago. The 29-year-old guidance counselor and her husband, Gerardo, an elementary school principal, had hardly slept since their baby Elsa was born a month before.

They were ready to dole out $200 a night for a baby nurse to come to their Natick home, but a friend suggested they first call Lindy Salkin for advice.

Salkin opened Stepping Stones last summer for new parents like the Martinezes.

Salkin, 37, is a nurse practitioner with experience in postpartum care from Massachusetts General Hospital and a master's in counseling. She and her husband, Robert Shapiro, have a 7-year-old daughter and twin sons who will be 6 next month.

With a calming voice, a warm smile, and a relaxed manner, Salkin sees herself stepping in where relatives may have in the days when families lived in the same towns, if not on the same street.

Salkin found that baby Elsa was having a difficult time distinguishing between daytime and nighttime. Another problem was that Elsa wasn't being ''swaddled" or wrapped snugly, which is important as newborns flail their arms during sleep (the ''startle effect"), waking themselves up.

Since getting Elsa into a night routine with a warm bath, low music, low lights, quiet talking, and swaddling, the Martinezes are finally sleeping.

''It seems like common sense now, but at the time I wouldn't have thought to make any changes," said Shaina Martinez.

Salkin said she is most frequently contacted before the birth of twins, when the parents-to-be enter ''panic mode."

Based on her experience as a nurse, Salkin expects that many of her clients will reflect the changing nature of families: older parents, single parents, gay and lesbian parents, and adoptive parents. ''With each of these groups come their own challenges," she said.

Caring for children has been the center of Salkin's life since middle school, when she prompted her parents to adopt her younger sister, Tess.

Salkin, who was raised in Cleveland, volunteered at a children's rehabilitation hospital where she met ''this adorable 13-pound, 3-year-old African-American girl. I fell in love with her and so did my parents."

The girl was born with fetal alcohol syndrome.

Salkin's parents, both practicing psychologists, had hoped to adopt a child at some point and had already finished the required paperwork, so it wasn't long before Tess joined Salkin and her older sister Nancy as part of the family.

As an undergraduate, Salkin attended the University of Rochester, where she took American Sign Language for her language requirement, a huge help because she has a learning disability called Auditory Processing Deficiency, making foreign languages difficult to learn.

''In all of my classes I would tape my lectures, relisten to them, and take notes."

Salkin's goal was to work with parents of newly diagnosed deaf children to help them adjust. She received a master's degrees in counseling and deaf studies at Boston University, but her plans to pursue a doctorate were dashed when the university scaled back on her specialty. She then decided to change course, becoming both a registered nurse and nurse practitioner.

While with the postpartum unit at Massachusetts General Hospital, Salkin was particularly struck by a 48-year-old woman who had just delivered twins with donor eggs. Her husband was in his 50s.

''She was so afraid to be alone with her two babies," Salkin said. ''I remember spending a lot of time trying to get her to be comfortable."

Another of her patients had been diagnosed with breast cancer during her fourth month of pregnancy.

Her first doctor had advised terminating the pregnancy so that she could undergo surgery and chemotherapy. The woman, who was in her 30s, sought another physician who felt she could have a mastectomy, continue the pregnancy, then proceed with chemotherapy after the baby was born.

Salkin's green eyes welled up as she recalled ''the joy on the woman's face breast-feeding the baby on her one breast."

As a postpartum nurse, psychologist, and nurse practitioner, Salkin had family and friends come to her with pregnancy and newborn questions for years.

One evening while she sat with her husband complaining about her job, he asked, ''What excites you? What do you love to do?"

Salkin answered, ''I love working with newborns and parents."

Within a few months, Stepping Stones was born.

For more information on Stepping Stones, call 617-947-1172 or log onto www.steppingstonesnpc.com.

AROUND THE TOWNS -- Carol Bonner, associate dean at the Simmons College School of Social Work and Newton resident, was recently honored by the Massachusetts chapter of the National Association of Social Workers for her contributions to the profession. . . . Jay Harrington, Wellesley High School class of 1989, is guest starring on this season's ''Desperate Housewives" as a physician and the love interest of Teri Hatcher's character, Susan. . . . Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Massachusetts/ Metrowest have named Bonni Carson DiMateo of Wellesley, Laura J. Martin of Framingham, and Geoff E. Spofford of Westborough to the agency's board of directors. . . . The Newton Community Service Center board of directors recently named William H. Garr as executive director.

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