: Today In History · Horoscope 37°

Login · Register |  Contact Us · Site Help |  Place an Ad · 

Subscriber Services Home Delivery Gift Subscriptions Mail Subscriptions Bill Pay Address Change Delivery Issues Vacation Stop EZ Pay Single Copies

New hospice seeks volunteers

Monday, April 14, 2008

BJC Hospice will begin seeing patients in the Farmington and surrounding areas in the next few weeks, and is currently hiring individuals and seeking volunteers from the area. They will be located at 757 Weber Road in Farmington.

BJC Hospice brings 25 years of experience and compassion to the Parkland area with services such as massage therapy for the patient and caregivers, music therapy, free support groups and retreats for ages 6 through adult, extended bereavement programs for children and adults and more.

“In coming to the Parkland area we will be able to provide continuity of care within the BJC HealthCare system and the community at large with local staff, familiar with the needs of patients and families within their communities,” says Barbara Westland, director.

Parkland Health Center, BJC Behavioral Health and BJC Home Care Services are also a part of BJC HealthCare. BJC Home Care Services operates from Farmington and sees patients within a 50-mile radius. BJC Hospice is non-profit, and services will be offered based on need rather than the ability to pay.

Volunteers may help in the office or provide relief for caregivers in the home by visiting patients. Training is provided. Call Eileen Spinner at 314-953-1762 or e-mail her at www.bjchospice.org for more information.

Hospice care is a concept of health care that provides for the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of terminally ill patients and their families. It is for people confronting a fatal illness, for whom curing the disease is no longer a realistic goal.

Hospice provides services needed to manage the patient’s symptoms and complications. It can be provided to people facing a variety of diseases such as cancer, end-stage heart or lung disease, dementia, ALS, Alzheimer’s, AIDS, renal disease and other chronic illnesses.

By providing pain and symptom management, as well as emotional and spiritual support for the individual and family, hospice helps people to live as fully as possible, in comfort and dignity. Although most hospice services are delivered in a private residence, some patients live in nursing homes, assisted living facilities or senior living complexes.

The staff of BJC Hospice will include registered nurses expert in pain and symptom management; certified home health aides; medical social workers to connect the family with resources in the community; physical, speech and occupational therapists; volunteers and a medical director.