GRH Auxiliary Hospice volunteers offer compassionate end-of-life services
Contact: Mardi Ford
This team of GRH Hospice volunteers completed additional training for the No One Dies Alone program that was officially launched November 23, 2009. Front row from left Karina Squire, Bunita Stockhoff, Irene Froyd, Jennie Tucker and Phyllis Kemp. Back Row from left, Cheryl Simpson-Whitaker, Jeanne Bowden, Jan Kresse, Yvonne Bowling, Connie Kilby and Dave Osmick.
GRH Auxiliary Hospice volunteers offer compassionate end-of-life services
Ask someone you know what they fear most about dying and the response will often be dying alone. Although many of us hope our loved ones will be there for us at our life’s end, what happens to the person who has outlived family or friends? Or the freeway traveler or area visitor who is rushed to the hospital after an accident?
It may not be a pleasant subject, but the reality is – whether it’s in the hospital or in their own home, sometimes people are alone when they die. And nobody should die alone.
Working together, Grande Ronde Hospital Auxiliary and the GRH Home Care Services Hospice program have developed end of life services modeled on the “No One Dies Alone” program implemented in 2001 at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Eugene.
Volunteers for the GRH No One Dies Alone program are specially trained in end-of-life care through the GRH Home Care Services Hospice program. They are available to sit vigil with someone approaching death. The expectation is simple: quiet reading, perhaps holding a hand. Being there is the most important thing.
The No One Dies Alone program, with the support of nursing staff, offers compassionate companionship to people who would otherwise be alone during their last hours of life. Grande Ronde Hospital patients or those receiving hospice care through Home Care Services can be referred by staff for No One Dies Alone companionship in their last 48 hours of life. For more information about the GRH No One Dies Alone Program, or to become a trained volunteer, contact Teresa Smith-Dixon, LCSW, at GRH Home Care Services and Hospice at 541-963-1453.