WEBSTER COUNTY, KY (2/1/12) – A public service agency providing care to citizens in Webster, Union, and Henderson counties plans to host, in conjunction with local volunteers, a fund raising benefit at the Webster County Extension office in Dixon from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 7.
“Hospice is not cancer,” said St. Anthony’s Hospice Provider Liaison Kendra Marsh, noting the facility serves terminally ill patients who aren’t seeking treatment. “We provide pain management and comfort measures.”
St. Anthony’s Hospice program primarily focuses on home visits with patients to provide medical related services, helping families and relatives prepare for end-of-life issues, and counseling for those who have or are about to lose a loved one, Marsh said.
“A typical RN will be in three times,” Marsh said of the weekly home visits. “A CNA (counselor) will come by two to three times. It’s common five to six days a week to have someone in the house.”
Marsh said the Hospice program has helped increase life expectancy for its patients.
“Patients live an average of 29 days longer with Hospice,” Marsh said. “The quality of care we’re able to give can actually rally a patient, if that makes sense.”
Former Hospice community board chairperson and current volunteer, who helped organize the upcoming benefit, agreed.
“It give them a little bit of control,” Newell said.
Hospice workers also focus on close family members, Marsh added.
“We have the ability to prepare... the family for what’s about to happen,” she said. “We prepare them emotionally. The RN prepares them for what’s going to happen, and even after death, the counseling keeps going.”
Marsh said bereavement counseling services are available to anyone, not just relatives of Hospice patients.
Sebree resident Janette Davenport, who has had several family members over the years in Hospice care, said she has found the service the agency provides invaluable.
“They are one-on-one with you all the time,” she said of the staff as she recalled her experiences with Hospice. “The last two to three days we were there, they would sit with us. They tell you, ‘This is the way this is going.’ It made it so much easier.” Davenport’s brother-in-law and mother-in-law were both in Hospice care when they passed away. She said the staff’s approach was very reassuring.
“They came all the time and gave us support,” she said. “It was nice to have someone who knows what is going on.”
Davenport said she recommends the agency to everyone she knows who is faced with the death of a loved one.
“In a situation like that, it can make you nervous, but they always know what to do. They do an excellent job,” she said.
Tammy Laffoon of Providence, who has been working with Hospice for the last few months, said the level of care the staff provides has been a “blessing” for her and her 27-year-old son, Jason.
Jason Laffoon suffers from Down’s Syndrome, and more recently was undergoing treatment on his lungs because they stopped working properly. Eventually, Tammy Laffoon said, doctors at Vanderbilt Medical Center told her there was nothing more they could do for her son. She said shortly after, she contacted Hospice to help make her son as comfortable as possible.
“We just fell in love with them,” she said of the staff, noting that an registered nurse comes by to take care of her son at least three times a week, even if it is to do nothing more than just spend some time with him.
“At first, I wouldn’t leave, but it finally got to a point where they knew I had to,” Laffoon said. “Now I am more comfortable.”
Working with Hospice made it possible for her son to have access to medical equipment he hadn’t had before, such as a larger oxygen tank. Jason Laffoon receives four to six breathing treatments a day as part of his care, something Tammy Laffoon said she does with him as often as possible.
Laffoon said she would recommend Hospice to others as well.
“The best thing a person can do is contact Hospice if they don’t want their family member to go to the hospital,” she said. “I think they’re great, wonderful people.”
In addition to home services, St. Anthony’s Hospice also has a 10-bed facility where patients who need extra care can stay. For more information about the Hospice program, call 270-826-2326.
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