Category: Hospice

Dryden Barber Shop Fundraiser: “Everyone Loves Hospicare”

Posted on by Hospicare

The Dryden Barber Shop has been in business 30 years, and Sylvia Short, the shop’s owner, wanted to throw an anniversary party. In keeping with the shop’s tenth, twentieth and twenty-fifth anniversaries, this party would be a fundraiser for a charity, but which one? “I thought, everyone loves Hospicare,” she says. “There’s not one person who says anything negative about hospice. Wow, how could anyone say no? It’s a win-win!”

Since making that decision, Sylvia has been planning the party with all benefits to go to Hospicare. She’s happy to do it, she says, because she is grateful for the care Hospicare gave her 85-year-old mother at the end of her life. Her mother was suffering from interstitial lung disease and reached a point where she decided to call Hospicare. “Mom called Hospicare herself and said, ‘What are my choices? I don’t know what to do,’” Sylvia remembers. “She told us she’d called hospice to find out the next step.”

Hospicare nurse Amanda McLaughlin, RN, immediately visited Sylvia’s parents in their home to explain hospice and to assess Sylvia’s mother for hospice service. Then Amanda became her nurse, visiting once a week to check on her and to keep her comfortable. Amanda and the rest of the Hospicare team made a real difference in the lives of all family members, Sylvia says. “That’s what Hospicare is known for. They help you. Hospicare made a huge impact because they were so good with my father. They were so good with all of us. It’s the way they present themselves. They’re not just there for the patient, they’re there for the whole enchilada. We certainly appreciated it.”

The Dryden Barber Shop event will be held at the Dryden Hotel and include a live auction starting around 3:30, face painting from 3:00 to 4:00, cake and a hot dog sale. There is a possibility of a raffle or silent auction, as well.

To see the items that will be auctioned, visit the Dryden Barber Shop’s Facebook page.

What: Dryden Barber Shop’s 30th Anniversary Celebration and Fundraiser

When: Sunday, May 7, 2:00−5:00 PM.

Where: The Dryden Hotel, 42 West Main Street, Dryden

 

“Volunteering for Hospice Is So Rewarding”

Posted on by Hospicare

by Dr. Pat Hayes

Those of you who know me may have heard me talk about how important volunteers are to hospice. They provide crucial help to patients and their families, especially to family members who are in need of respite. Hospicare & Palliative Care Services, our hospice provider, offers patients and their families the chance to have trained volunteers visit them wherever they live, to offer companionship and a helping hand. Most often this means the visit happens in the patient’s own home, but it can also be in a nursing home or other care facility.

Hospicare volunteer Pris Coulter

Recently I spoke with Pris Coulter about her experiences as a hospice volunteer in Cortland County. Pris has been a volunteer for ten years; she first started when Caring Community Hospice of Cortland was the county’s hospice provider, and she has continued volunteering with Hospicare. “I’ve visited patients in nursing homes and in their own homes and just chatted with them,” she says. “I’ve sat with patients who could not speak, and I’ve played cards with others.” Sometimes Pris’s visits to a patient coincide with their caregiver’s need to take a break. “I sat with a patient once while her husband went to the funeral home to make arrangements,” she says. “Then there was the patient who was able to be alone, but his wife needed me to take her to the grocery store because she couldn’t drive.”

In the last year, Pris has added a new dimension to her volunteering—helping with bereavement services. Once a month she goes to the Hospicare office in Ithaca to help with mailings to the families of deceased patients, and she reaches out to patient family members through quarterly phone calls for the first year after a death. “I check in with folks to see how they’re doing and to remind them of the bereavement services that are available, like one-on-one grief counseling with Hospicare counselors, or monthly bereavement meetings,” she says.

Pris is used to the surprised reactions when people find out she is a hospice volunteer. “The first thing out of their mouth is, “how can you do that?’” she says. “I explain that it’s truly rewarding to deal with folks who really have a need for your help. It’s an extremely good feeling to know you are wanted and you have a part in helping them through this difficult time. I’m providing something for them they can’t get anywhere else. That’s why I can do it.”

Pris is also quick to point out the benefits of utilizing Hospicare’s services as soon as a person is eligible for them. According to Medicare guidelines that is when a doctor has determined the patient has six months or less to live. The sooner a patient chooses hospice, the more they and their family members will be able to make use of all the services provided. “Hospicare makes things much more comfortable for the patient and family,” Pris says. “If you’re religious, they offer spiritual care services. If you need help with stress or emotional issues, they have counselors for that. They can provide help with logistical care problems. They have so much to tap into.”

Pris is aware that many people are afraid to be around the dying, but she says it’s not an issue for her. “I don’t know what people are afraid of,” she says. “Death is a part of life. It’s inevitable.”

If you’re interested in learning more about volunteering with Hospicare, call 607-272-0212 or visit the volunteer page of our website.

Pat Hayes, MD, is a retired physician from Cortland County. He serves on the board of directors for the Hospice Foundation of Cortland County and was the board president in 2015. He currently writes a monthly column with Jackie Swift on hospice for the Cortland Standard. This article first appeared in the March 11, 2017, issue of the Cortland Standard.

Join Us for Spring Volunteer Training

Posted on by Hospicare

Would you like to volunteer with Hospicare? We depend on over 100 volunteer community members to help our agency carry out our work. Our trained volunteers visit patients in their homes or assisted care facilities, offering practical help and companionship. They also assist the agency in other ways, depending on their interests and backgrounds.

What do volunteers get out of volunteering for our agency? Volunteer Kat Patton says her work with Hospicare gives her a chance to learn and grow as she gets to know the patients she helps. “As a volunteer you meet remarkable people who happen to be at the end of their lives,” she says. “There’s a lot of joy and wonderful connections to be made. I meet people who have done amazing things. I didn’t know them back then, but I can still hear about it now and see the twinkle in their eyes when they talk about their experiences.”

Spring volunteer training will be held for three consecutive weeks: March 14, 16, 22, 23, 29 & 30, 5:30 PM-9:00 PM. The trainings will take place at the Nina K. Miller Hospicare Center, 172 East King Road, Ithaca. Attendance at all sessions is required.

Before registering for training, prospective volunteers must submit an application form, available on line and meet with Wendy Yettru, manager of volunteer services for an informal interview.

For further information, check out the volunteers section on our website or email Wendy or call 607-272-0212.

Talking About Hospice

Posted on by Hospicare

by Dr. Pat Hayes

Talking to an ill loved one about hospice can be hard. It’s awkward and uncomfortable for most of us. We fear offending the other person, or worse, causing them emotional pain. I’ve seen this huge reluctance to even mention the word “hospice” in both family members and in physicians.

But if you have a loved one who is facing a serious or terminal illness, one of the best things you can do is to help them understand the comfort hospice provides. Begin the conversation about hospice early enough so they will be able to take advantage of all the services available. Remember, your loved one is eligible to go on hospice when they have six months or less to live, as determined by a physician.

Even if you’re ready to talk to your loved one about the benefits of hospice, how do you break the ice? That’s a question physicians struggle with, too. As compassionate human beings we don’t want the patient to feel that we’ve given up on them, so we keep waiting for the patient, or their family members, to give us signs that they’re ready for the hospice talk. All too often everyone stays silent. As a result, hospice isn’t even discussed until the last week of life. At that point, the patient is unable to utilize all the services provided by hospice—services they could have had for months!

I don’t have a one-size-fits-all suggestion for how to begin the conversation about hospice, but here are some pointers that can help you choose your own course of action.

If you want to approach the subject of hospice one-on-one with your loved one, choose a quiet, comfortable place without distractions in which to do it. Choose your first words carefully. You might try something like “I want to talk with you about your illness. There may be a time when we may need to focus on your comfort instead of a cure, and I’d like to discuss the options with you.” Or, “Your last stay in the hospital seemed hard on you; I think there’s a way to avoid that in the future.”

These types of openers put emphasis on a future need for hospice. They can give your loved one the reassurance they need to think more clearly about hospice now. After the opener, you can explain more about what hospice is and what it provides.

Another way to approach the topic of hospice with your loved one is to do it in the presence of their doctor. Accompany your loved one to a doctor’s appointment and then use the opportunity to draw the physician into the conversation. A good opening line could be something like “Doctor, what do you think about hospice? Can you tell us something about it?”

In this way, you can begin a conversation some doctors may be uncomfortable initiating. In a three-way conversation, you can facilitate understanding by providing prompts as needed, such as “Doctor, can you tell us more about how hospice will help us avoid hospital visits?” Or you can encourage your loved one to participate in the conversation by asking, “What do you think about what the doctor just said?”

Don’t feel you have to wait for your loved one’s doctor to call hospice. If they live in Tompkins or Cortland Counties, you can call Hospicare, at 607-272-0212, to start the process. Your attempts to help your loved one understand hospice and utilize its services sooner can be a great expression of your love. The comfort and compassion provided by hospice can make a real difference in the quality of life they experience in their last months.

 

Pat Hayes, MD, is a retired physician from Cortland County. He serves on the board of directors for the Hospice Foundation of Cortland County and was the board president in 2015. He currently writes a monthly column with Jackie Swift on hospice for the Cortland Standard. This article first appeared in the January 7, 2017, issue of the Cortland Standard.

How Hospice Helps: One Patient’s Story

Posted on by Hospicare

by Pauline Cameron, RN, CHPN

Pauline
Pauline Cameron, RN, CHPN

I worked with a patient who was in his late 30’s and had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of colon cancer. At the time of his referral to hospice, we had been told that his pain was not well-controlled. On my arrival at his home, the patient was lying on the sofa. I explained the 0-10 scale for rating pain and asked him to give me a number; through gritted teeth, he said, “Nine.”  And it was clear what our first priority had to be…

We quickly got his pain down to “6,” at which point he was able to engage in conversation and looked much more relaxed. Over the next several days we visited him twice a day and worked with his MD to adjust the doses of four different drugs, as he actually had multiple kinds of pain – a narcotic, a neuropathic med (for nerve pain), a steroid, and an NSAID (e.g. ibuprofen) for bone pain.

One day I walked in and, as usual, found him lying on the sofa.  I said, “OK, you know the drill – what’s the number today?” He gave me a big smile and, making a circle with his thumb and index finger, said “Zero.”

Yes, that patient died, and that was sad. But before he died he got up from that sofa and took his children to visit Marineland and took them fishing and went to visit his parents once more. He really lived until he died. Excellent pain management gave him back what was left of his life.

Pauline Cameron, RN, CHPN was a Hospicare staff member for many years until her retirement in 2014.

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Families More Satisfied when Hospice is Involved

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Founder of the modern hospice movement, Dame Cicely Saunders once said “How people die remains in the memory of those who live on.” At Hospicare, we recognize the great importance behind Dr. Saunders’ words. Our goal in caring for our patients and supporting their families is for death to be a peaceful, natural experience and not something to be feared.

Reuters reports that a recent study by the Journal of Clinical Oncology (online on December 19, 2016) found that families of cancer patients were more satisfied with the treatment and care their loved ones received if hospice was involved. The families surveyed for the study were more likely to indicate that their loved ones had the right amount of pain medicine and help with breathing difficulties when they had care and support from hospice.

Hospice is generally defined as being appropriate for people whose physician indicates they have less than six months to live. Unfortunately, many patients and families wait until much closer to the end to ask for our help.  “Our findings suggest that earlier hospice enrollment is associated with better symptom management, less pain, better quality of care, and a higher likelihood that patients will receive the care that they want in their own environment,” said study co-author Dr. Alexi Wright of Harvard Medical School and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

If you want to learn more about the benefits of receiving hospice care, or palliative care, please visit the Get Support section of our website. Or call us at 607-272-0212.

Choosing Hospice Sooner Brings More Comfort at the End of Life

Posted on by Hospicare

“I wish we’d called you sooner.” This is something we hear often at Hospicare from patients and their loved ones. Once a doctor has certified that a patient has six months or less to live, the patient is eligible to go on hospice, but all too often, our hospice team isn’t called in until the last few days of the patient’s life. Our nurses, social workers, aides and other professionals do all they can to make those last moments as comfortable as possible—but there is so much more they can do if they have more time to get to know the patient and family members.

The longer a Hospicare team works with a patient the more they are able to respond to that person’s unique situation and medical needs. Here are some of the benefits of choosing hospice sooner:

  • As patients and family members work with the Hospicare team, they become more comfortable sharing their end-of-life journey and discussing their care needs. This rapport can help in the building of an optimal care plan based on the patient’s and family’s wishes.
  • Pain and symptoms can be controlled better. Our hospice team members are specially trained in the treatment of pain and discomfort. That includes the mental and emotional distress that can come at the end of life. Pain and symptoms are addressed sooner and crises can be avoided.
  • Stressful hospital visits can be reduced or eliminated.
  • Hospicare team members can help family members understand the end-of-life process. The team social worker, spiritual care coordinator, and bereavement counselor in particular can help family members become more mentally and emotionally prepared for the death of their loved one, which can make the grieving process less overwhelming.

We Are Doing Profound Work

Posted on by Hospicare

by Lisa Schwartz, RN

The first time I visited Hospicare was during a clinical rotation during my last semester of nursing school. As soon as I walked into the Residence, I knew how special it was and that one day I would work there.Three long years later, after going home to help my parents,then working on the fourth floor at Cayuga Medical Center, I am now a nurse in the Hospicare Residence.

I feel proud to say I work at Hospicare. I haven’t tired of hearing how moved people are by what we do, by the kind of care we give. I believe we are doing profound work in our little six-bed Residence that is really a chapel in disguise.

One night I held a patient’s hand as he died because his wife and daughters were not there. The gratitude they felt that he did not die alone, that someone sat by his side as he left this world, made me weep. I was the one who got the gift. Sitting with him was a privilege.

Sometimes when I am tired or my back hurts, I forget the bigger picture of what we do within the Residence walls. I forget that we have created a place where people come to live as they walk toward the end of their lives. I forget, in those moments, that every day I come to work and tend to my patients is an honor that is almost indescribable to anyone who doesn’t work here.

How can I explain what it means to wash a patient who has died, how the tenderness of it can bring tears to my eyes? How can I describe how holy and sacred this work is? We are there to care for those who are loved and adored and can no longer be at home. They are placed in our hands with trust and the hope that we will do what we do day after day after day. At the end of my shift, I tiredly walk to my car knowing we have all worked hard to make our patients comfortable and to provide a place for them to gently lay their heads,and that we will do it all again tomorrow.

Lisa Schwartz, RN, was a nurse in the Hospicare Residence when she wrote this essay about the rewards of her work with patients and their families.